It is very hard to discuss anything relating to SNAs without dealing with the onslaught of fears that have been expressed to politicians due to the guidelines from the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, which provide that there will be a very limited school-led review and that the window will be shut. There has been row back on that. There has also been row back on the fear that SNA allocations would be unified across mainstream and special classes. I welcome that we have heard that from the Department, Government and the NCSE. I know this will be delivered in written form to schools. I ask that the guidelines be updated. The guidelines should state exactly how things are. That request is fair enough. We have all met with SNAs, teachers and principals on that and that is all they are looking for. There are issues relating to the conditions for SNA allocations. On this basis, I raise the issue of Tiernan Clarke. It is an issue I brought up with the Minister of State previously. I have also spoken to the Taoiseach and the NCSE around it. It is something we really need to see movement on. Tiernan Clarke is from Riverstown on the Cooley Peninsula. He is now aged four. He is in Rampark National School. He is registered blind and he has a condition that renders his bones prone to breaking if he falls. I have been told that he has had a number of what I am going to call minor falls. We are dealing with a health and safety issue. There is an ASD class to be opened in October, but at this point in time there are three SNAs in his class setting. These circumstances are going to get a lot worse at some point this month. I understand the way the allocations are done this weather. They are not done on the basis of a single allocation for a child. However, we are talking about a child who at best can see 6 m where we can see 30 m. We are talking about a four-year-old. He has albinism and photosensitivity. Someone has to make sure he puts sun cream on before he goes out for fear of his propensity for cancer. We need to ensure that he has a one-on-one SNA allocation. At this stage I cannot see anything other than this working at this stage. While his condition may get worse, he will get older and learn a skillset. In the future he might not need the supports that are needed now. His mother has said this. Whether talking to his teachers, principal or his visiting teacher - I have given Minister of State correspondence - who deals with children who are visually impaired, they are absolutely afraid that he will not have the supports that are required. I understand the rules. They need to be examined in general, but, beyond that, we need to have an element of flexibility because we are talking about a health and safety issue that is causing huge stress for a family. We are also talking about a child who at this point in time does not have the supports he should have. It is a circumstance that is going to get worse over the next couple of weeks. I ask that the Minister of State does everything in his power to resolve this issue.

I thank the Deputy for raising this sensitive matter before us. I assure him that clarity was brought on the issue of the SNA guidelines but there were some concerns in relation to them. Nothing has changed. We are working off the circulars for 2014 and that will continue to be case. I would like to allay the fears that some people have in relation to the guidelines and the letters issued last week. We understand the central roles that SNAs play in ensuring that students can access education and enable them to achieve the best possible outcomes. In a lot of instances, special education and education for children with additional needs is very much on the backs of special needs assistants and the work they do. On the issue the Deputy raised, the NCSE is responsible for co-ordinating and advising on educational provision for children with additional needs. We will have 23,000 SNAs working in our educational system by the end of this year. It is important that we have. The number of SNAs available for allocation has continued to increase annually. Budget 2025 provided for 1,600, which is the largest ever number. The NCSE manages the allocation of SNAs to schools and it is responsible for ensuring that these resources are allocated to children with the greatest level of need. The NCSE advised each school in June of their allocation for the 2025-26 school year. Each year schools are advised of their SNA supports, which indicates that the NCSE will undertake reviews to ensure that SNAs are allocated to the children with the greatest level of need. Such reviews can see an increased or reduced level of support or no change in allocation. This has always been part of the work of the council and is necessary to ensure that resources are allocated in line with the level of need. Regarding the issue that the Deputy raised, the NCSE advised me that it has been in communication with the school regarding the deployment of an SNA allocation and that the student is being provided with support at present. The school submitted a further request to the council. There were a number of issues with that request. The council went back to the school looking for further information. This information was received by the council on 15 September and the review is being processed. I assure the Deputy that I will liaise with the NCSE and the Department to make sure the review is done as speedily as possible and we can get back to him. I take the points the Deputy made relating to his constituent and the level of need that is there. I assure him that I will work with the NCSE to ensure there is a timely review of the matter and we can get back to him as soon as it is completed.

The NCSE guidelines need to be updated to ensure there are no further worries about what people believed were the changes introduced. We do need to look at some element of flexibility in dealing with specific children like Tiernan. He is registered blind and has a propensity to break bones. We can all imagine the difficulties that exist and we talking about a four-year-old child. The circumstances could improve in the future and he may need fewer resources. At this point in time he is lucky that the ASD class has not yet opened. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State will engage with the review process. It probably should not have come to this House, but if we could have that happen as quickly as possible and deliver a positive result his mam, the principal and everyone else would be especially happy with that. Then we could provide the child with the necessary school framework in which he can learn. I want to put on record a letter that was written before the child was there. It was written by a visiting teacher for young people who are blind or vision impaired who was very concerned about the fact the school had told Tiernan's mother they were not in a position to provide SNA support for him. The visiting teacher stated: Tiernan has a significant visual impairment and he also has a medical condition whereby his bones break very easily. He is coming from a nine child preschool room with full level 7 Aims support into a Junior Infant classroom of over 30 children with no additional support. Tiernan has blind registration and aside from the fact that he is going to have great difficulty navigating such a big classroom, if he trips and falls, he has the added danger that he could have a serious bone break. There had been NCSE correspondence before but it was the usual stuff about the SNA resources; in other words, not an individualised resource but a school allocation to be deployed to children who have significant primary care needs. That is not a good enough answer. As I said, we need to ensure this process happens speedily and that Tiernan is provided with the supports he should have.

I take the Deputy's point and thank him for putting the matter relating to Tiernan and his care needs on the record of the Dáil. I could give him a long-winded answer, but I take the point he has made and I assure him I understand the importance of SNAs in enabling students like Tiernan across the country to access education and get better outcomes. I undertake to consult the NCSE and liaise with the Deputy in a timely manner. I will ask for the review to completed and will certainly bring the matters he has put on the record of the Dáil. I understand as well that documentation is with the NCSE, through the school authorities. I will certainly liaise with the Deputy if that is okay.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank him for being here. We mentioned during our Private Members' business debate the other week that many families are being left in complete distress as a result of what I consider, being kind, the inefficiencies within the NCSE. A fortnight ago I raised the case of Sonny McElvaney from my constituency with the Minister of State. He is a young boy who has significant additional needs. He has made huge progress, more than anybody would ever have envisaged, largely due to the efforts of his parents, especially his mother. His mother is very proactive. She engaged with the NCSE last November to inform its officials that her child would be attending school, to identify the school of choice and to state categorically the child would not be able to attend school unless he had one-on-one SNA support. That was not her view and she would say she did not like having to come to that view, but it was the view she had received from the professionals who had dealt with Sonny. She contacted me in June. It is October today and from last November she had been engaged with the NCSE. In June, she told me the NCSE had been in touch with the school and the likely decision was the school would be asked to split the one SNA it currently has between two children and that simply was not possible. I will give an outline of how frustrating this must be for parents because it has been frustrating for me as an elected representative who deals with official bodies all the time. I contacted the NCSE immediately after that. That is going back to 6 June. I indicated there was substantial evidence to say Sonny required one-on-one supervision and an assistant and would need a full-time SNA. I received an acknowledgement from the NCSE. A couple of days later I sent it the occupational therapist, OT, assessment that had been carried out, again stating the need categorically. On 19 June, I had reason to meet NCSE officials and provided additional substantive documentation. I later sent correspondence from the school, with the permission of the other child's parents, that showed that child needed a full-time SNA. On 9 July, I received an email from the NCSE which referred to my previous correspondence. I am sorry; it was on 14 July the NCSE confirmed an appeal had been received and an outcome would issue before the end of July. On 25 July, I asked whether there was any update on that. On 1 August, I got notice from the NCSE that the school's submission would have an outcome likely next month. On 11 August, the family was contacted by a Fine Gael representative, not by the NCSE, to tell them the appeal had been unsuccessful. It took until 12 August for that to be officially notified to the school by the NCSE. Correspondence was ongoing constantly with the NCSE. On 20 August, I sought, on behalf of Sonny's family, an urgent meeting with the NCSE-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----and I received a response on 21 August that basically said------

You can come back, Deputy.

-----no further application or information is required at this time. I am only halfway through this story. Can the Minister of State see the frustration this family is going through, which I share?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The question was about the impact of the delays in the Cavan-Monaghan area. I can speak to the amount of work being done by SNAs, which I have spoken about in response to Deputy Ó Murchú's matter, and the commitment of the Government to SNAs. Special education is built on the huge commitment by SNAs the length and breadth of the country and I thank them for the work they do. The NCSE makes these decisions. When the Deputy was going through the events there, he said he submitted an OT report in relation to Sonny. What date was that report? The Deputy might come back to me in his supplementary contribution. I want to get the facts. I have all the other dates here relating to this case, but the Deputy mentioned he submitted, on behalf of the family, an occupational therapist's report to the NCSE and I would appreciate that. If the Chair will allow I will give time to him to outline the case out of my time. I will endeavour to try to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion. When parents contact the NCSE about the needs of their children they are constantly asking what the best possible outcome is, whether it is mainstream, a special class or a special school. They are constantly worried about whether the right supports are in the school and whether their child will be able to survive in the school environment. In the cases of a lot of children with additional and complex needs, parents will constantly say that if there is an SNA there, they will be able to encourage the child, help them and ensure they are integrated into the school as best as possible. I understand that. I also understand very specifically the importance of the SNA role in schools and of course for the families as well. I will work with the Deputy. He mentioned this to me during Private Members' business the other week. I will work with him and the NCSE to see if we can get a resolution to this. I can understand the frustration about the dates he has given me. I would appreciate it if he could give me as many of the dates as possible. If he could put the dates on the record, I will endeavour as a matter of urgency to address this. I understand from my previous conversations with the Deputy and with the NCSE that officials were working with the school to resolve these issues. I will go back again. It might be this afternoon before I get a chance to do it, but I will certainly go back to them. I would appreciate it if the Deputy could give the date of the OT's report. Then if there is any further information he wants to put on I will take it on board.

I thank the Minister of State. I sent the OT report to the NCSE on 9 June last year. I do not know whether that report had previously been submitted to the NCSE but I know mountains of documentation were submitted. Just to give a sense of this, after all the assurances that this was going to be dealt with in July, the email I received on 21 August stated: I appreciate your ongoing attention for the enclosed. Duly confirming as per recent correspondence to the school, all documentation and information relating to the SNA review for the school has been recorded by the NCSE and provided to the SNA review panel. No further application or information is required at this time. I had to respond to the NCSE to say I did not know what that meant and to ask what I was supposed to tell the family. On 26 August, I received an email from the NCSE stating that it appreciated my follow-up correspondence and confirmed that the outcomes of all outstanding SNA reviews were due to issue to the school as soon as possible in the first week of September. Then we go on, waiting for the first week in September. No update arrived. On 9 September, indication was given to the school that the review was complete and that the school remained at one SNA. The school is back a number of weeks at that stage. Sonny could not go. This child had a full-time SNA in preschool and then it has essentially been withdrawn from him. Since then, we have been trying to raise these issues. In all of the correspondence I receive from the NCSE, officials finished with this absolutely insulting line: "Schools are expected to operate within their existing allocation." There are two children in the school who both need a full-time SNA and there is one SNA. One of the children is going to miss out and at the moment it is Sonny because he is the newest child in the school. When I first started engaging with the NSCE on this particular issue, I thought the case was clear-cut and it was so blatantly obvious that this would be resolved fairly quickly. The fact that it is not concerns me. How many Sonnys are there the length and breadth of the State whose parents do not have the wherewithal or even the energy to knock on the door of their local TDs and have them do some of the fighting for them? If TDs are getting information from the NCSE that is turning out not to be actually what is happening, what are parents being told? That is a serious question. This particular issue needs to be addressed but we need to make sure there are no Sonnys out there who are being denied their school place because of incompetence - and that is what this is.

I thank the Deputy. First, when a child is in preschool and is availing of the AIM programme, something I noticed when I got this role was that in the Department of children and the Department of Social Protection the information that was across the system was not being shared. Children who are in preschool and availing of the programme should be very much taken into account when they start off in primary school as well. The Deputy mentioned the dates. I have the dates. The one thing I was not sure of when I went back was if the OT report was only submitted on 9 June, but the Deputy has clarified that. It may have been submitted prior to the application. I will endeavour to go back. I had discussions with the NCSE regarding this issue since he first raised it with me and I will endeavour to bring clarity on it as soon as possible. I take the points he has raised very earnestly and I will endeavour to help in this situation. I give an undertaking to do that and we will come back to him when I have an update.

I thank the Minister of State for being here to discuss what is frankly a crisis in the way the State approaches youth work in the north inner city. Over the past few weeks we have all seen the headlines on the spate of crimes in the area. I am not going to sensationalise what is happening. Instead, I want to force this Government to acknowledge that these youth people, some of them not even out of their teenage years, are being pulled into drug-running and dealing because we have failed them long before members of An Garda Síochána even met them on scooters. I cannot overstate this. Youth work is crime prevention. I wish to speak to the Minister of State about youth work, specifically in the north inner city. It is, to some degree, underfunded. We also have youth workers feeling scared as they go about their daily lives trying to just do the job that is so important for the communities they serve. I give a particular shout-out and recognition to Independent Youth Works Project Dublin, which has 20 projects across the city, including the SWAN Youth Service, Cabra for Youth and Rutland Youth Service. They came together last year with one simple modest ask: sustained structural funding rather than the piecemeal grant system it is forced to survive on year after year. There is also the Bradóg Youth Service, which is currently paying €70,000 a year for its building and is struggling to stay open because of it. When we hear the Government talk about tackling so-called antisocial behaviour or launching initiatives on community safety, we cannot talk about safety while continuing to underfund the very services that prevent crime in the first place. What I am talking about today is not in the abstract. In Mountjoy Square, a community after-school project has been asking for months for something as basic as a new front door because there are holes in the one it has. This is the reality. Kids in one of the most deprived parts of the capital are walking into a youth space that cannot even afford a proper front door while millions of euro are found for surveillance and policy initiatives. The Minister for justice has often told me I need to be more positive about the city. I have just suggested some real, positive measures that can be taken. We do so consistently. Will the Minister of State commit to real, targeted, ongoing funding for youth services in Dublin's north inner city? I am not talking about ad hoc grants, pilots or press releases but about sustained investment in the very services that will keep our young people out of crime and give them a chance. In the north inner city, which is actually often discussed in a way, there are communities that experience generational poverty and trauma but we have always had people willing to stand up and give good community-orientated service to the area in which they grew up. Oftentimes, the services in which they do that are cut to the bone in terms of funding. These youth workers are those we ask to be on the front line of many of the issues that talk about when we talk about addressing antisocial behaviour. It is often the youth workers themselves who are going in and talking to younger people who are often traumatised or in the throes of addiction. At this point, we are a stage where young people are now being groomed into drug gangs. These services are supported to a degree but not to the extent that would make a sustained difference to the areas. Last week, I was taken aback to see reports in the newspaper of something I probably understood but when I saw it written down it was blatant and that is youth workers being scared at the moment, such is the level of intimidation, drug-related intimidation and associated violence. If we are to take these communities - and not just in the north inner city - and their safety seriously, we need to invest, not only in more community gardaí on the street, but in tackling the violent disrupters themselves who are operating in centres that are often underfunded and unsuitable.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the crisis in the youth services in the north inner city, which gives me an opportunity to set out the position regarding these services. Supporting youth services is an absolute priority for the Department of Education and Youth, ensuring that young people in the north inner city of Dublin and across the country have access to valuable resources and opportunities. The UBU your place your space, scheme is the Department’s largest funded youth scheme. It targets young people aged between ten and 24 who are identified as marginalised, vulnerable and at risk of not flourishing. A budget of €50.7 million was allocated under the UBU scheme in 2025, representing a 6% increase on budget 2024. Over €17 million of the UBU scheme has been allocated to the City of Dublin Education and Training Board in its capacity as a grant administering body in respect of the scheme. More specifically, €2.8 million was allocated to five UBU youth services that support young people in the north inner city. This year, in addition to the base allocation of the UBU funding, the Department is providing a further support of €170,000 in recognition of the challenges facing the youth services to address the needs of young people in the north inner city. The aim of this additional funding was to provide additional youth services in the north east inner city, NEIC, to ensure that young people who are marginalised, disadvantaged or vulnerable are afforded the opportunity to participate in voluntary youth services to support their wellbeing. The Department is also represented in the north east inner city's task force, including its various subgroups. The Department participates in subgroup 3, which focuses on supporting children, young people and family wellbeing. A key objective of the current NEIC strategic plan, being led by subgroup 3, is to develop a strategic plan for youth work and youth services in the area. Department officials are working closely with the NEIC structures to progress and support this objective. The Department funds the NEIC city connects pilot project, currently running in ten NEIC primary schools and eight schools serving children of post-primary age who live in the north east inner city. City connects organises student support and leverages existing school and community-based resources to improve students' academic and social-emotional outcomes. This includes relevant youth services in the area. Working together with the city connects team, some youth services in the area have been able to adapt or change the services they provide to ensure they are meeting the strengths, interests and needs of young people based on information provided by these young people to the city connects team. The Department is actively engaged in reviewing and strengthening the youth work services in the north inner city to ensure they are responsive to the evolving needs of young people, inclusive in their reach and effectively resourced.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The north east inner city task force is referenced quite a bit in the Chamber and other Deputies ask for similar schemes to be applied in their own areas. Why would they not? A substantial amount has been allocated over a nearly seven-year period. We should remember why that task force was initiated. It was initiated to confront the crime, drug-dealing and violent feud that tore the soul out of this city, but looking at the outcomes seven years later, despite considerable funding, we have drug-dealing and associated violence that is more insidious. Liberty Park in the north inner city is effectively a no-go area, such is the level of open drug-dealing, violence, and people almost being corralled into that space. I am here consistently calling for a safer city centre. The displacement factor when the gardaí do that drives problems into the north inner city. We effectively have places at the moment where policies of containment are going on, with the idea being that if this is happening there, it is not spilling over into the more commercial part of the city centre. The people who are most tasked with addressing that, in the absence of real Garda or State involvement, are our youth work services. The youth work services I engage with include the Diamond Project in the Belvedere Youth Club, which is working with about 15 young people who would previously have been in the throes of all the negative commentary that I often bring to the Chamber, but through restorative justice practices, it has taken those young people and worked with them intensively, and they are no longer in the criminal justice system, saving the State an absolute fortune, but more importantly, probably saving their lives. That is the type of intervention that we need. It is considered, targeted and measured. In the absence of that, we are continuing to throw money at outcomes that we have not yet seen to be successful.

I thank the Deputy for his second contribution. As outlined, the Department provides significant support to the UBU scheme for youth services that support young people in the north inner city. Many communities across the length and breadth of the country are looking for the same intervention as has happened in the north east inner city and north inner city. They are looking at resources that I outlined in the previous answer, including the €50.7 million and other funding that has been put in place. I take the point that we have to look at the outcomes. The Deputy also made a point about people turning their lives around and the number of young people who have successfully done that. There might be very few, but every success is a success. I assure him that the Department of Education and Youth is very much aware of the marginalised and vulnerable, and those at risk of not flourishing. One key issue before us as a State is the percentage of people who, because of intergenerational issues, including crime and drugs, are outside the State or not really engaging in education or with services, which is a key objective. We have seen an increase in the budget for this over recent years. There are other disadvantaged communities, which have been raised by other Deputies in the House. It is important that while we continue to support and invest in these communities and ensure that the marginalised and vulnerable are given an opportunity to flourish and move forward with their lives, we take stock of how these programmes are working and whether the outcomes are successful, and if not, we have to tweak them to make sure that we have the best possible outcomes for the people involved. I will endeavour, within the Department, to work with the Deputy to get as much funding and targeted measures as possible.

Right across cities, towns and villages, there are empty, vacant, and derelict houses and buildings lying idle. They are being left to rot. These are properties and homes where people should be able to live, work and raise families, but instead they are left derelict and vacant. GeoDirectory has found record levels of commercial vacancy. It has also found that only 2,377 homes have been charged with the vacant homes tax. There are probably two or three times more than that in Cork city alone. This is a shockingly low figure. Why is more not being done to tackle vacancy and dereliction? These empty buildings are ripping the heart out of communities in our cities, towns and villages. They are destroying local economies and forcing people to live in overcrowded, substandard accommodation and in many cases emergency accommodation. More than 5,000 children are in emergency accommodation and at the same time, we have vacant, derelict buildings in every town, city and village. It is madness. What is being done about it? I will give a couple of ideas to show what I am talking about. I have a printed image of a street in Cork. It has been like that for years. It is not just Cork. I have an image of Crumlin village. What could be a lovely house with an extension on it has been boarded up. It is not just that. I have an image of Dublin city centre. A block of houses has been left boarded up to rot while there is a huge waiting list in Dublin for the many people in homeless accommodation. People cannot rent or buy. It is not just here. A massive building in County Kerry is vacant and derelict. I have an image of another in Buncrana, County Donegal. I also have an image of a vacant building in Sligo. In every town and every village, we have boarded-up properties. What is the Government doing about it? We do not know whether these buildings are on the derelict sites levy. Even though the data was collected in quarter 2, and I have looked for it at least ten if not 12 times, I cannot get an answer from the Minister. Will the Minister of State commit to responding to me and to releasing the data in relation to derelict sites levies? Are the levies being charged? How many sites are on the levies? What local authorities are either putting sites on or charging the levies? There is information that needs to be delivered. Will the Minister of State commit to releasing that data? To be honest, it looks like to me that a cover-up is going on around dereliction. We know from previous years that local authorities are underfunded, understaffed and under-resourced. If we want local authorities to deal with this, the Government must support them. I propose that the derelict sites levy be taken off local authorities and given to Revenue because the one thing we know is if Revenue is given the job, it will do that job. What we have at the moment are land hoarders. They do not have to pay the local property tax because the property is derelict. They will not pay the derelict sites levy because local authorities do not have the staff to enforce it. What is happening? Will the Minister of State release the derelict sites data? Will he look at moving the collection of it to the Revenue Commissioners?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and giving me this opportunity to update Members on the issue of vacancy and dereliction. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. Tackling vacancy and dereliction is a key priority for the Government. The reuse of vacant and derelict properties can provide much-needed housing, while also being a catalyst to revitalising communities. A number of national structures have now been established, including a dedicated vacant homes unit in my Department, a full-time vacant homes officer in each local authority and the implementation of a vacant homes action plan to ensure co-ordinated, cross-Government action. In March 2025, the Minister, Deputy Browne, published the 2025 progress report, which shows the significant progress being made in tackling vacancy and is available on my Department's website. A key focus in the action plan relates to the interaction with the Government's town centre first policy approach, which was launched by my Department and the then Department of Rural and Community Development in 2022. Town centre first provides a whole-of-government policy framework to address the decline in the health of towns and support measures to revitalise them. To drive the delivery of town centre first, dedicated town regeneration officers are now established within local authorities and are working in concert with vacant homes officers and other local authority staff to tackle dereliction and develop regeneration initiatives. In addition, where local authorities find that the acquisition of particular derelict properties is the appropriate mechanism to return them to use, they are enabled by the provisions of the Derelict Sites Act to acquire them compulsorily. This approach is now supported through the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, which has established a €150 million revolving fund specifically for local authorities to acquire vacant or derelict properties, residential and-or commercial, if necessary, using their compulsory purchase powers, and to carry out any associated works needed to make them more attractive for use or sale. On completion of the most recent review of this element of the URDF programme, over 1,370 residential and commercial properties were approved by the Department for inclusion in the approved programmes for all 31 local authorities. My Department has also introduced planning and development regulations that provide an exemption from the need to obtain planning permission for the change of use of certain vacant commercial buildings to residential use, including above-the-shop living. The most recent local authority returns from 2024 show that local authorities have received notifications of 1,457 exempted development proposals to date, with plans put forward that result in the provision of 3,429 new homes nationwide. These exemptions can be combined with other funding supports, such as the vacant property refurbishment grant and the repair and leasing scheme, in order to bring buildings into residential use. At the end of quarter 2 of 2025, over 13,730 applications had been received for the vacant property refurbishment grant and almost 10,000 had been approved. Over 2,800 grants have been paid to date as refurbishment works have been completed. Further information on the range of supports is available on the Department’s website. This month, the CSO released new vacancy data for 2022 and 2023. It notes a national vacancy rate of 3.3% at the end of 2023, dropping from 3.6% in 2022. While varying levels of vacancy are indicated in different data sources, the overall trend is downwards and vacancy levels are declining nationally. The new programme for Government, Securing Ireland’s Future, also includes actions that aim to further continue work on town centre living and regeneration challenges. These measures will be considered in the context of the forthcoming new national housing plan that is currently being prepared by my Department, including consideration of potential funding and financial supports to assist in encouraging the use of vacant or derelict buildings in towns and cities for new homes. I will bring back the point the Deputy raised to the Minister.

I accept that town centre first is a good model. The problem is that only 26 town centres were done in the first three years, between 2021 and 2024, and another 26 have been passed for 2024 and the next three years, as I learned from the answer I got to a parliamentary question. The town centre first policy is a good policy, but it will take 90 years to implement because there are over 800 towns in the State and we are only doing 26 every three years. That is crazy. The Government has a project that is good in principle but it is not funding it and not rolling it out at the level needed to target vacancy and dereliction in town centres. The Minister of State spoke about one vacant homes officer in every local authority. That is a joke. We put pressure on the previous Government to get that one vacant homes officer. What we are looking for is a vacant homes team in each local authority to tackle vacancy and dereliction. I will be honest. We got a response here that sounds great and suggests that there is loads going on. I invite the Minister of State to walk the streets of Dublin with me, and I will also bring him to my home city of Cork, where I will walk him around and show him the dereliction and vacancy. He can list out all the projects but the facts are that houses and buildings are being left to rot in the middle of communities, when we have people who cannot rent or buy and others who are in emergency accommodation. I will say one thing to anyone who is watching or listening. This Saturday at 2.30 p.m. on Grand Parade in Cork city, we are holding a Raise the Roof rally with unions, other left-wing political parties and student unions. I ask anyone who is listening, if they are sick and tired and fed up seeing good buildings left to rot while people have no homes, to come out on Saturday to support Raise the Roof.

Once again, I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. Addressing vacancy and dereliction is a key priority for the Government. As I stated, I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. As I mentioned, with to regard to dereliction and vacancy in Ireland, particularly in small towns and villages, the Government is taking a proactive, co-ordinated and whole-of-government approach, which recognises the importance of supporting and empowering local businesses and residents to make real and lasting change in their communities. The Deputy referenced local authorities. Many local authorities have specific vacant homes and properties teams operating. Substantial progress is being made on delivering on the town centre first approach and the vacant homes action plan through the provision of dedicated staff and resources for the dereliction and vacancy issues I referenced. These are being complemented by the financial supports for planning reforms aimed at converting underutilised buildings to new homes in our towns and urban areas. The range of measures being taken by the Government to address vacancy and dereliction are having a real success and vacancy levels are declining. Significant investment through schemes, such as the urban regeneration and development fund, the vacant property refurbishment grant and the repair and leasing scheme, are helping both local authorities and ordinary people to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use and revitalise towns across the country. With regard to derelict sites, my Department initiated a review of the Derelict Sites Act and invited local authorities to make initial submissions on potential improvements to the legislative provisions and the way they are applied. I again thank the Deputy for raising this issue and providing me with an opportunity to inform and update the House.

I appreciate the opportunity to raise this issue, but I do so with anger and frustration on behalf of Evan Gardiner and his family, who are constituents of mine in Kildare North who have been utterly failed by Children's Health Ireland and by the system. In September 2022, Evan was assessed by Mr. Pat O'Toole who recommended urgent surgeries on his knees, his ankles and, potentially, his hip. The advice was unambiguous: without intervention Evan faced the risk of lifelong mobility issues, including possible wheelchair dependency. That was over three years ago, and no surgery has taken place. Since then, Evan's family have done everything that has been asked of them. They attended every appointment, followed every piece of medical advice and remained fully engaged with CHI, yet instead of action, they were told Evan had been lost in the system; a child with a severe and deteriorating condition lost in the system. That is completely indefensible. To make matters worse, Evan's father, Vincent, is himself undergoing cancer treatment. The family is under immense pressure, and they deserve clarity, compassion and timely care, not entities and cancellations and, to be honest, excuses. My office became directly involved in May of this year. Since then, we have contacted CHI and the HSE over 40 times by email and over 20 times by phone. Every one of those contacts is documented and with me today. If this is the effort that a TD has to make to try to get some sort of answer, what hope do parents have in situations like this? It is completely farcical. I will give the Minister of State another example. Last Friday, the family received a letter telling them that the surgery on 10 October was cancelled. I submitted today's Topical Issue last Friday, and on Monday, they sent a letter saying that the surgery on 10 October is back on. I will mention some of the other communications between CHI, the HSE and me and my office. On 23 June, I submitted a parliamentary question. The response took nearly four weeks and when it arrived on 7 August, it was incomplete. It failed to acknowledge two full years of Evan’s medical history, a critical period of assessments, consultations and missed opportunities. That omission was disgraceful. On 26 September, as I said, Evan's long-awaited appointment on 9 October was cancelled by phone with no explanation given. On 29 September, as I mentioned, CHI confirmed that Evan's surgery had been rescheduled for 10 October but yesterday afternoon, Vincent, his father, received a phone call from Crumlin hospital saying that Evan is now to be admitted on 9 October with surgery on 10 October. Does the Minister of State think it is any coincidence that once the Topical Issue matter was submitted for this morning, suddenly, CHI at Crumlin got into action? This is something we are seeing time and time again, not just myself but other Deputies. We raise numerous parliamentary questions. We contact the relevant phone lines and email addresses, yet it takes standing here in the Dáil for anything to happen. It is not feasible for the number of families throughout the country, like Evan's, that TDs, as in this instance, are raising individual cases to try to get some action. This case also shines a harsh light on how CHI is treating families. It also shows how CHI treats elected representatives. As I said, if a TD with every avenue open to him or her cannot get timely, honest information, how on earth are families supposed to get the answers they need? I have a number of questions I will put to the Minister of State in the final two minutes. This is a situation we are seeing. Harvey Sherratt was one example, and now we are seeing an inquiry into what happened there. This is not just in relation to hip dysplasia and scoliosis. This is going across the board into multiple areas of children's health. I welcome the decision that CHI is now going to be subsumed into the HSE because as far as I am concerned, it is not fit for purpose.

I thank Deputy Ó Cearúil for raising this matter. I am taking this debate and matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Deputy Ó Cearúil will appreciate that I cannot talk about individual cases before the Chamber. Obviously, if the Deputy has questions in relation to individuals, they can be raised directly with the Department of Health. I acknowledge the case he has highlighted, however. While I cannot specifically talk about it, I acknowledge how difficult it has been for the family. I welcome the fact that the procedure has now been scheduled. It should not have had to come to this, and I appreciate that. I acknowledge that he has raised it, but I cannot speak about individual cases. It is acknowledged that acute hospital waiting lists are too long, and many patients are waiting an unacceptably long time for care. The Government is focused on having a public healthcare service in which everyone has timely access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it. Since the commencement of the waiting list action plan approach in September 2021, significant progress has been made in reducing both the number of patients on waiting lists and the length of time they are waiting. In relation to the Deputy’s particular query on paediatric hip surgery waiting lists in north Kildare, I can advise that the National Treatment Purchase Fund. NTPF, does not publish data on subspecialties. Therefore, I will refer to the orthopaedic waiting list, within which hip surgeries are a subspeciality. According to the NTPF, the total outpatient waiting list for orthopaedics in CHI was 3,406 at the end of August 2025. This compares to a total of 3,930 waiting at the same time last year. This is a 13% decrease. Additionally, the inpatient and day case waiting list for orthopaedics in CHI reduced from 764 in August 2024 to 671 in August 2025. This is a 12% reduction. Further, the percentage of inpatient and day care patients within the Sláintecare targets was 27.3% at the end of August 2025. This is compared to 22.1% at the same time last year. I can also advise the Deputy that for Kildare specifically, the number of children waiting for inpatient and day case paediatric orthopaedic procedures in CHI has reduced from 58 in August 2024 to 46 in August 2025. This is a 20% decrease. This highlights that the waiting lists are trending in the right direction. I acknowledge the case he has raised on behalf of his constituents, however. Further developments to these lists are under way, including the migration of the specialty to a central referral system. The NTPF has advised the Department of Health that it has approved both outpatient and inpatient and day case initiatives for orthopaedics, which will facilitate treatment for patients on these waiting lists in Children’s Health Ireland. As the Deputy is aware, the final report of the developmental dysplasia of the hip audit was published on Friday, 23 May. The Minister’s immediate priority following the publication of the Thomas audit was to ensure there was clinical follow-up and care for patients who had undergone pelvic osteotomy surgery. All patients and families were sent a letter from CHI and the National Orthopaedic Hospital in Cappagh about the next steps that will apply to them and their child, and how they can get further information or support. As of Tuesday, 23 September, a total of 196 patients have had clinical reviews as part of the multidisciplinary team clinics. In relation to retrospective reviews of cases to determine the indications for surgery, the HSE is establishing a separate process involving external experts. It is expected that the panel will be established in the coming weeks and that the review of individual cases will commence in January 2026. The recently established HSE CHI improvement steering group is overseeing the progress of these reviews. This group was established by the HSE CEO in recognition of the need to co-ordinate oversight of a range of matters of focus in CHI in a cohesive fashion. This group most recently met on 29 September 2025, and senior officials from the Department of Health attend these meetings. The improvement of waiting times and particularly waiting times experienced by children and young people remains a priority for the Minister for Health. The Minister is committed to ensure that reform remains centred around putting the child and their family at the very heart of our paediatric services.

Go raibh maith agat, a Aire Stáit. This surgery was scheduled previously, and it was cancelled. Surgery is a traumatic and worrying period for any person no matter what age. For any of us with children, it is even more worrying and scary. Then for the child, it is extremely traumatic, and how a parent deals with that is extremely difficult. For surgery to be scheduled, cancelled, rescheduled and cancelled is far more difficult on a family than the actual surgery itself in a lot of instances because of the fear that the hope of getting something done will be taken away. There is also, naturally, concern about the impacts and dangers that come with surgery. I know the Minister of State is not the direct line Minister for Health, but I will ask three particular direct questions of him today. If he could give them to the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, I would appreciate an answer. How can it be justified that a child at risk of permanent disability has been left languishing in the system, in this case for over three years, and in other cases even longer? How is it acceptable that CHI can refuse to provide written explanations to a parent whose child's surgery is being cancelled? What accountability will be put in place to ensure the culture of indifference finally ends? As I said, this is not an isolated case. Families across Ireland are waiting far too long for essential procedures. CHI's failures are well known, and while it is now being folded into the HSE, changing the letterhead will not fix the problem. We need structural reform and a complete change in culture that places the child at the centre, not bureaucracy. I ask the Minister of State to acknowledge the unacceptable delays in Evan's case, investigate why this family were put through years of suffering and ensure that the Gardiner family receive not only timely surgery but also a full apology for how they have been treated. Evan's surgery must now proceed on 10 October, and nothing less will do to be honest.

Once again, I thank Deputy Ó Cearúil for the attention he has given to this important matter. As I already said, I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Once again, the Deputy will appreciate that I cannot speak on individual cases, but I do want to acknowledge the matters he has raised in respect of his constituents. The procedure needs to go ahead as scheduled. That is hugely important. I acknowledge the angst and anxiety caused to families when operations and procedures are cancelled. I acknowledge that. I will bring the three points the Deputy has raised to the attention of the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Department. I suggest the Deputy also communicate formally with the Department on this matter. The Minister for Health is conscious of the impact the prolonged waiting times are having on patients and their families. The Deputy has brought up the specific case of his constituents. The waiting list action plan 2025 follows an outcomes-informed approach and specifically focuses on reducing the length of time that patients wait for care. The total CHI paediatric orthopaedic waiting list has reduced compared with this time last year. Importantly, the length of time children are waiting has also decreased. Nevertheless, the Deputy raised the specific situation of his constituent, and I acknowledge that. Work is ongoing to improve services, including a migration to a central referral system and a national reporting initiative to increase capacity. The HSE CEO has also commissioned an audit to assess the governance and inequity in access to care within CHI, especially regarding the balance between public and private patient management. Further consideration will be given to any additional actions required. The HSE CHI improvement steering group, co-chaired by the REO for Dublin and the midlands and the chief clinical officer, is co-ordinating the oversight of the implementation of the recommendations from the completed reviews, including the audit of developmental dysplasia hip surgeries in CHI. I assure the House that the Minister for Health remains fully committed to the improvement of waiting lists, including in respect of children awaiting paediatric orthopaedic surgeries.