6. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [32399/25]
Sentiment score: 0.00
Ireland is becoming the most expensive country in Europe to go to college. With the threatened withdrawal of the €1,000 assistance to parents, this will further be the case. Parents and students are making CAO decisions now about whether or not they can limit or pick cheaper courses or courses nearer to where they live, but the Taoiseach will not decide until July. Some 100,000 children are living in consistent poverty. College will become elitist once again, as it always was in decades past. The dropout rate among working class young people is 23%, compared with 11.5% in general. Full-time and part-time jobs are a necessity for working class youth going to college. Will the Taoiseach please give a commitment now, not in July as the cost-of-living crisis bites, that he will restore this? I welcome that there will be a protest outside Leinster House at 6 p.m. this evening, where young people will make their position crystal clear on this.
Sentiment score: -0.02
19. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on infrastructure will next meet. [33614/25]
Sentiment score: 0.00
For a year and a half, the people of Dublin West have been guinea pigs for drone infrastructure. The potential for drones to do very important work for humans is definitely there, such as emergency relief, medicine, reaching isolated places due to geography and so on. Such new infrastructure should be with community assent and approval and not inflicted with no recourse by private companies that are in it for a profit and to deliver coffee, burgers and fast food, not medicine or anything that is essential to human beings. There are incredible levels of noise. There is an erosion of privacy and social cohesion. These are all the issues that should have been explored before this infrastructure was unleashed on the population of Dublin West. Now we see Manna, with Deliveroo, will take part in operating 2 million flights whereas it has been 170,000 heretofore. The Minister, Jack Chambers, was apparently asked to emphasise the uncluttered nature of our airspace to allow these drones in. We see that Enterprise Ireland has given Manna grants, as well as raising money from venture capitalists and Coca-Cola. This should never have happened without community approval. Will our skies become as busy as our roads? Are people ready to give up privacy, community cohesion and peace and quiet in our areas? I do not think so but this is being allowed in the name of inevitability and innovation.
Sentiment score: 0.23
Yes, I know but----
Sentiment score: 0.40
Yes.
Sentiment score: 0.40
For fast food?
Sentiment score: 0.00
I am.
Sentiment score: 0.00