First, 7,860 children who have applied for special placements in our schools. That is more than twice the number who did so ahead of the current school year. Please acknowledge that. It is because of the earlier date being forward. Six thousand are already enrolled in schools-----
Sentiment score: 0.16
-----and a further 1,400 are preschool-age children. To be very clear, the Government is absolutely committed to meeting the needs of every one of those children. The €646 million approved by the Government is additional to the Estimate that was agreed at budget time. This money is largely to cater for the additionality that has arisen as a result of the change in the system that we brought in with the early date in October. The investment in special education has been enormous, and rightly so. In the context of all that talk about failure, we have doubled and trebled the numbers across any metric to do with special education.
Sentiment score: 0.25
My understanding is that a new regulation has been introduced by the Minister in respect of this in recent months. It is shocking that this would occur. I presume the matter has been referred to the Garda in terms of any fraudulent activity here, because it is absolutely unacceptable that would occur to any student. The Minister has acted on that, but I am sure he would be willing to engage with the Deputy’s representatives in order to provide an update on where we are on it and to take on board any constructive suggestions.
Sentiment score: 0.01
Online fraud is an enormous issue and has been for quite some time. There are regulatory frameworks governing this and obligations governing the companies as well. There is an issue with some of the revenue models of some of the companies in respect of advertising that defames people, for example. There is revenue in that and there is also revenue in the shocking case the Deputy outlined with a young couple being defrauded to the tune of €2,000 in respect of a villa. At both European and national levels, we will keep the legislation under review to make sure this is stamped out.
Sentiment score: 0.12
The Deputy loves creating a narrative about every initiative of Government. It is nothing to do with Progress Ireland or anything like that but it is to do with supply. I will be straight-up.
Sentiment score: 0.37
It is not its idea.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Deputies all over this House were advocating for this long before Progress Ireland was ever established. There have been cases in rural Ireland where people have had difficulties with extensions and buildings in their back gardens, fields, or whatever they were attached to, including farmhouses and so on. There is a balance here. The Deputy has opposed every single measure to do with supply of housing that we have introduced. You name it. It includes any of the housing Acts, and everything else. I do not know what Deputy Murphy's agenda is, ultimately. I am not saying this is perfect but it is needed. It can be for family members and will be useful for family members but family members will not be staying forever in a unit out in the back. They will want to move on as well. These are not sheds, by the way.
Sentiment score: 0.09
The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, is working on this, and is making progress. We recently signed an agreement with Moldova for truck drivers to be able to come and work here automatically. It is needed for the diaspora. There is no question about that. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, is making progress on it.
Sentiment score: 0.21
I will raise the issue with the Minister for Health. There may be other aspects to this as well. We do not want any anxiety in any location around this. I will talk to the Minister in respect of it.
Sentiment score: 0.21
I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. General practice is one of the cornerstones of our health service. Forty-three percent of the population now has access to free GP care and Government investment has significantly increased. We spend in excess of €1 billion annually on general practice to support patients. There is a strategic review of general practice under way. The Minister for higher education has increased the places for medicine training to have more output and throughput of GPs through the colleges. We will await the strategic review. We increased funding substantially in terms of the 2019 GP agreement and a further €130 million investment under the 2023 GP agreement. We are making it more attractive. On training and recruitment in particular, there were 350 places in 2024 and 2025. That was an increase of two thirds since 2020. Getting those numbers through the colleges is going to be key.
Sentiment score: 0.32
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of Carrabane National School. If the tenders were issued in January 2024, it is difficult to comprehend why it did not get the green light soon after that. I certainly will engage with the Department of education on this and more broadly in terms of capital allocation to education. We have invested a lot in school buildings in the last number of years but it is vital to the quality of the learning environment for the children concerned. I will take up the matter.
Sentiment score: 0.24
Is that the Office of Public Works, OPW?
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I will talk to the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, in respect of this fascinating location and site. It is very historic, so obviously we would like to have it reopened, but I will have to get the timeline for the Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.48
It has obviously gone on the open market. I will talk to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, who has responsibility for the National Parks and Wildlife Service, but these are issues it pursues. We do not normally talk about land sales but obviously it is out there. I will see what its position on it is.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I applaud the Deputy's very precise and accurate recollection of what I said last year in respect of the-----
Sentiment score: 0.73
Absolutely, and I repeat and endorse everything I said. As I said at the time, the review has not been brought to Cabinet but it is complete. I would not hold my breath and have some disappointment with the review in terms of its lack of focus on urban councils. There is a focus on municipal area districts. We will examine it and bring it to the House for debate. I believe we need to look at some urban areas to begin the restoration of urban councils. That is a view I have but the system has a different view. We are elected to do what we believe is right. I think it was a mistake to abolish councils for a number of reasons. One reason was that they gave a cohesion and sense of community to given towns and allowed them to create a vision for the town. They also allowed people who wanted to make a contribution to their locality at a certain electoral level to do so.
Sentiment score: 0.01
We will examine it. Again, obviously, the market has to operate as well. I am just making a general point. We will certainly examine the legislation, constructively and in an engaging way, and we will see if we can-----
Sentiment score: 0.21
Yes, I know. All right. I cannot arbitrate here in one minute.
Sentiment score: 0.13
First, we need to continue to work with Tusla. It is all great calling for independent reviews, inquiries and everything. That just paralyses organisations. That is the other side of that coin. We have to deal with children now who need care today, tomorrow or the day after. A balance needs to be struck in terms of how we deal with this. There are very serious issues here and all is not well in certain aspects, particularly in terms of special care and particular individuals who need very specialist care. However, if we keep putting every organisation endlessly under a microscope, then where is the space to actually get things done, improve the organisation and build up confidence? There are thousands and thousands of cases. There were 106,000 child protection and welfare referrals. That is enormous. That is an increase of 10% on 2024, and is driven by domestic violence, homelessness, addiction, criminal activity, sexual exploitation and mental health challenges. I think of a lot of the people who work in Tusla too because they are at the coalface of very challenging situations. I fully respect the Deputy's perspective and why he is concerned.
Sentiment score: 0.17
The easiest thing we can do is call for reviews and have everybody investigating everybody else with everyone too afraid of their shadow to get things done.
Sentiment score: 0.42
That is the other side of this.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Yes, we can. My understanding is that it is done by regulation but we can. There will be some legislative changes needed. I agree 100% with what the Deputy said. In fact you can now subdivide a house as well under this planning statement. Equally, you can do what the Deputy said in terms of people creating a unit for themselves and renting out the house. There is no question that in many of the older housing estates, the density has gotten very low. Whereas when we grew up, there was five or six people per family - in some cases, there was eight or nine people per family - but all of that has changed dramatically. There is further thinking to be done on how we maximise the capacity of the existing housing stock in our society. I think there is a bit of an iceberg here that we are at the tip of. In my view, we have not really properly explored it. The rent a room scheme does help in regard in terms of incentivising the use of buildings where there might be just one person in a three-bedroom house and so on.
Sentiment score: 0.10
Yes, it is open to families.
Sentiment score: 0.40
I thank Deputy Carrigy for raising what is a very important issue and for sharing his personal experience with us about the impact of dementia on family and on individuals. I commend the runners for their initiative to create awareness. The Deputy correctly credited the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who does fantastic work, particularly in the area of day care centres. There are 60 such centres now across the country. I remember how five or six years ago we had very few. We now have 60. We need to continue to work on this and we need to continue to do more. The advisers are very important. We need to invest more in research to understand it better and to develop greater therapeutics that can stall and delay dementia. There is a lot happening in that world. That is why investment in research, investment in care and investment in supports, above all for families and individuals who have dementia, is critical.
Sentiment score: 0.30