I would like to take the opportunity to welcome Shillelagh National School pupils to Dáil Éireann. They are very welcome indeed. I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 16, inclusive, together. Reducing child poverty is a key priority for this Government, as set out in the programme for Government. In September 2025, the Government agreed a new and ambitious child poverty target to reduce the child consistent poverty rate to 3% or less by the end of 2030 from the current rate of 7.8%. This target is guiding decisions, action and investment across government. In budget 2026, the Government prioritised targeted supports for those impacted by poverty. Some €28.9 billion will be spent on social protection this year, including over €1.15 billion of new measures to assist households and more than €320 million in targeted measures designed to tackle child poverty. Key measures include the largest ever increases to child support payments, higher income thresholds for the working family payment and expanded access to the fuel allowance and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. These measures are in addition to cross-government initiatives under way, such as free school meals, free schoolbooks, free GP visit cards and enhancements to the early childhood care and education schemes, including the development of our new DEIS strategy. This will include DEIS plus, which includes more targeted measures for schools with severe disadvantage. It is very encouraging to see the effects of these measures starting to take hold. Recent data from the Central Statistics Office's Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2025, published on 11 March, shows a welcome reduction in the child consistent poverty rate in 2025 from 8.5% to 7.8%, demonstrating the impact of Government measures to date. However, of course, we know we have to do much more to deliver our target and enhance long-term outcomes for children and society generally. While consistent poverty is a very important metric, it is not the only way we have of measuring how children are doing. The programme office on child poverty and well-being has compiled a dashboard of indicators that will be used alongside the new child poverty target. This captures the multidimensional nature of child poverty and well-being, as alongside income supports, we are also advancing actions in housing, employment, childcare and public services. The Government’s new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, recognises that homelessness is the single most pressing social issue that we face. It provides dedicated capital funding of €100 million, which will be ring-fenced to support local authorities to acquire properties to tackle long-term homelessness. This funding will be used specifically to acquire suitable units to exit families who are the longest in emergency accommodation and for Housing First units for individuals with complex needs who are experiencing homelessness. Given the importance of this issue for child well-being, the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of housing are working together on a new action plan on child and family homelessness, supported by relevant Departments and State bodies.
Sentiment score: 0.02
I appreciate all the questions that have been asked. The Deputies have raised some important issues. Deputy Ardagh raised the issue of lone-parent families. It is correct that they can be particularly vulnerable at times to higher levels of deprivation or poverty. Child support payments are a very effective way to give additional supports. The latest budget saw a record increase of €8 for under-12s and €16 for children aged 12 and over, I think. We are going to continue to do that. That relates to the question about a second-tier payment. There are a number of mechanisms to get there. I will engage again with the Minister, Deputy Calleary on this for the next budget. The child poverty unit in the Department of the Taoiseach is engaging with all Departments but particularly the Department of Social Protection in terms of how we can increase income supports. The child support payment is a very direct and effective way to support. There are also means test thresholds we can look at as well to facilitate lone parents who are working to receive higher payments. The free books scheme and hot school meals scheme also help and facilitate lone-parent families. In some instances, the DEIS scheme is significant as well as DEIS Plus. We will continue in terms of the child support payments, higher income thresholds, access to fuel allowance, back to school clothing and footwear allowances. They were all expanded this year to about an extra 50,000 people. Some of those were lone parents. The free GP visit cards for everyone under eight, and better enhancements to the early childhood care and education schemes will all be supportive. We will engage with the organisations representing lone parents to see what more we can do to improve that situation. Deputy John Connolly raised a very important issue. I think €500,000 is too low. That probably came under the Department of children. It is too low. For years there have been problems in terms of children's playgrounds coming under different Departments. I absolutely agree that recreational space is vital to the well-being of any child. The Deputy mentioned Headford. Some areas of our cities historically never had enough green area provided. We can do more and can do better on that. I will keep an eye on that in the context of the next budget to enhance that fund. I will talk to the relevant Ministers, both in terms of children and disability but also in terms of allocations to local authorities more generally. Some of these initiatives suffer from pass-the-parcel between different Departments. The point is very well-made in terms of availability of play facilities. Play is key to child development. Children learn far more through play at an earlier age than through formal education so it is critically important. On the two-tier child benefit, we had a lot of discussion on it last year and I engaged with the Department of social protection, the Minister, Deputy Calleary and the Secretary General. One of the challenges was that under the model, a lot of existing families could lose out. We do not want that to happen. A lot of design work is under way. It is an open question as to whether we will go for a ring-fenced second tier or will continue to enhance child support payments, which have a very positive and immediate impact on child poverty rates. We are also looking at the cost of disability. The Minister has convened stakeholders' groups to consult on how a cost-of-disability payment would work, the extent of it, the limits and so on and who would benefit. That is not unrelated to child poverty either and could be a particular support to families of children with disabilities. In terms of DEIS plus, I do not like the phrase super league of poverty; that is unfair. We have the DEIS programme which is quite extensive and which we expanded significantly about two and a half years ago. It means a significant reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio in those schools, additional financial supports and other supports. The DEIS plus was set up with a view to having a targeted approach for very severely disadvantaged schools, even more than the DEIS itself. By definition it is not for every school. Targeting is important in the allocation of resources. There is actually something wrong if everybody gets it because that is not actually helping children who need it most. Politicians did not decide the list; it was independently decided. We can look at the methodology. I accept that sometimes we look at it and wonder how a particular school did not get in when another school did. We can look at the research and those who did the research to identify the schools that qualified for DEIS plus. There are significant issues in many communities - not all Government-created. We have to respond to and deal with them, and help the children who suffer as a result of particular background issues or whatever. DEIS plus is one further measure to assist children who are in very difficult situations to enable them to learn properly and to have some chance in life. That is what we are doing with the DEIS plus scheme. Deputy Ward asked about the equine centre in Clondalkin. I am a strong believer in equine centres. They can have positive therapeutic and recreational impacts for young people, in particular children. I am not sure if the Deputy was saying there an issue with the funding there.
Sentiment score: 0.12
I know the HSE is funding some equine centres but they may be of a different kind than the one in Clondalkin. I think the one in Clondalkin is more generally directed at youth so the Department of Education and Youth should be dealing with that. I will take that back to the Minister for Education and Youth to see what we can do there. Deputy Heneghan spoke about the plug-in solar system. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is very open to that. Anything that enhances the ability of people to reduce their energy costs is something we should be doing and investing in because it leads to a permanent reduction in their costs. I know the Deputy has been a very strong advocate for novel approaches to energy efficiency, such as the private wires Bill and plug-in solar. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is very open to this and I will ask him to meet the Deputy to pursue this and to engage on it. Deputy Ó Murchú raised a very distressing and sad case. I am always somewhat reluctant to discuss individual cases of children in the Dáil or in public. The HSE should develop capacities to help children in situations like this to avoid having a child locked up in what seems to be a mental health unit in a hospital. It is Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, is it?
Sentiment score: 0.16
If the Deputy sends me the details, we will pursue that. It is a very distressing case indeed.
Sentiment score: -0.23
I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 25, inclusive, together. Improving the lives of disabled people, advancing their rights and enabling them to reach their full potential, is a core focus and priority of the Government. The Budget 2026: Spotlight on Disability report was published by my Department in December 2025. This is the first budget spotlight report prepared by the disability unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, which was established to bring a renewed focus, urgency and weight to disability issues. Drawing on inputs received from Departments, the report outlines new or enhanced disability-related measures introduced in budget 2026 that will support the implementation of the Government's overarching strategy for disability, the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. The report finds that budget 2026 had a particularly strong focus on investment in both disability and mainstream services. A record €3.8 billion allocation to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality for specialist disability services represents a 20% increase in funding for disability services, which will improve both the sustainability of the sector and the delivery of residential, respite and therapy services for children and adults. The disabilities workforce is growing year on year. From the end of December 2019 to September 2025, the disabilities workforce in HSE and section 38 providers grew by over 21%. Building on growth achieved in 2025, budget 2026 will allow for further targeted expansion in the workforce across key services. In 2026, funding has been allocated for an additional 945 whole-time equivalents, which will bring the disability workforce to almost 23,600 by the end of this year. Budget 2026 is not just about investing in recruitment but retaining the people we already have in the sector. This includes investing in pay and pay-related costs, such as those associated with recent pay deals and providing funding to meet the costs of the pay deal agreed with workers in section-39-funded services in the voluntary sector. Last year the HSE appointed an assistant national director for the disabilities workforce to drive disability workforce initiatives with particular emphasis on enhancing recruitment and retention in children’s disability network teams. Additionally, a first-ever dedicated national director for disability will be recruited in the HSE, as well as six new regional disability leads in the health regions. During 2025, the HSE has focused on analysing retention challenges to inform the development of meaningful retention actions. A disability workforce strategy will be developed by the HSE in 2026 to meet growing service demands and address recruitment and retention challenges across specialist disability services, including children’s disability network teams. Special education also saw record investment under budget 2026, totalling €3 billion, which will see an additional 860 special education teachers appointed along with over 1,700 special needs assistants. In February this year, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, announced the phased roll-out of the new education therapy service, which will see occupational therapists and speech and language therapists placed in schools. The first 45 special schools to benefit from this service have been selected and are based in clusters in Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Louth, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Meath, Monaghan, Tipperary, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy Naughton, intend to have a further roll-out of the service on a phased basis with a wider roll-out to special schools commencing in the 2026-2027 school year. The current assessment of need system is not working as it should for children, many of whom are on long waiting lists for services. Work continues to fully resource children’s disability network teams to enhance capacity. It is important to note that children do not require an assessment of need to access health services, including primary care, children’s disability network teams and mental health services. Since June 2024, over 7,700 clinical assessments have been commissioned privately through the assessment of need, AON, targeted wait list initiative to support the delivery of AON reports, at a cost of €27.8 million. Budget 2026 allocated a further €20 million to this initiative to deliver up to 6,000 additional clinical assessments, with a specific focus on autism assessments. Other initiatives outlined in the report include increased investment in housing adaptation grants and in the public transport retrofit programme, along with enhanced supports for employers for the employment of disabled people. In addition, budget 2026 also contained targeted and mainstream social protection measures which will support households with disabilities, including increases in weekly rates, expansion of eligibility to schemes and amendments to income disregards for carers. Budget 2026 is a first step in the Government’s ambition to deliver the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. I believe we have made a strong start in year one of our programme of work and investment. Future budgets are expected to build on this progress to ensure disabled people are supported, empowered, and enabled to fully participate in their communities and society.
Sentiment score: 0.29
Again?
Sentiment score: 0.00
Sorry? It has a sanction?
Sentiment score: -0.04
What is the name of the school?
Sentiment score: 0.00
Deputy John Connolly was the first to ask a question. The schools therapy programme is working well. On the issue of the single point of access, the HSE has embarked on the idea of a one-door approach. The outgoing CEO, Bernard Gloster, was very focused on this. All last year at the Cabinet subcommittee on disability, he gave a very clear undertaking on behalf of the HSE that there would be a single point of access. Culturally and every other way, that is now being rolled out across the HSE. Deputy Connolly is absolutely correct when he says that children should not be moved from pillar to post. There should be one point open and there is now. It has been established. I will ask the HSE to get a report to the Deputy in terms of an update on it, but obviously a big change like that will take some time to bed down and be uniform. It is not disconnected from school places or the broader area of looking after children with disabilities such that we can move faster to provide the services the children require as opposed to being put from pillar to post. I will ask the HSE if we can get an update on that for the Deputy. He is absolutely correct that it is the only way to go. Up to last year, the situation was not acceptable. We had a debate about the therapy in schools service. I undertook prior to the election that it was a red-line issue for us that we wanted a schools-based therapy service. In many ways, that flowed from the inadequacy of what was happening within the health service in respect of therapy services and provision. To Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh, I would say that the budget allocated €3 billion to special education alone. There was €130 million for grants to adapt the homes of older people and disabled people. There is a €10 increase in the disability allowance and the expansion of the wage subsidy scheme. There was a €375 increase to the income limit for carer's benefit and we increased the monthly domiciliary care allowance by €20. There is a lot of long-term, permanent, positive measures for disability. The Deputy is correct in raising the wage subsidy issue. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, on this. Improvements were made last year but we are open to more radical improvements. In particular, I will speak to the Minister about disabled entrepreneurs. I do not see any reason they should be excluded from the wage subsidy scheme. We also need to look at the facility and capacity of people with disabilities to participate in the workforce without losing their disability allowance immediately. There are lots of issues around that. There are limits to how much a person's income rises. We need to be a bit more radical in that respect. Workplace participation will be an area of focus in the next budget. People with disabilities are not being given enough opportunities to enter the workplace. We have a poor record on this as a society and as a country. We have to do far better in that respect. The public service has made a lot of progress but needs to make more progress in facilitating employment. We have various employment schemes, such as Deaf Enterprises in my own area. We have made good progress with the HSE in that regard but for a long time there was no clear structure to support highly qualified craftwork such as upholstery and the repair of furniture, which is a great circular economy solution to the wider community that benefits. They were very skilled people but the financial sustainability and underpinning of it was not what it should be, so every now and again they would come looking for a bailout or some supports. We have improved upon that. Those are the areas. There are many other kinds of enterprises of that kind that we will do better on. I agree with Deputy Quaide that it is fragmented. We have inherited a system long before the State became involved in the seventies in disabilities where many of what we now call section 38 and section 39 organisations emerged from a period before State intervention, when organisations were set up to look after people with disabilities. We have come a long way since then but it is still problematic. There have been lots of improvements, including service level agreements, regarding complementarity with the State but the sustainability of quite a number of the organisations is an issue. In the long-term evolution of services for disabilities, there will have to be greater State involvement but that can only happen through an evolutionary process. There is a lot of expertise in these bodies as well, which we cannot lose. There is great voluntary endeavour and community and family engagement attached to it, all of which are positives when channelled and supported in the right direction. We do need to work hard at that. I think the Deputy said there are 1,172 grant-aided organisations providing services. Some are small and some are very large. We need to improve and streamline the relationship with the HSE regarding accountability and strategic future planning. I have an interest in this area. It is one of the reasons we have brought the ETBs in more on special education. Over time, the ETBs will have to develop capacity and experience, which they may not have had. At least now they have a wide range of resources and administrative capacity that can support the establishment of new special schools at primary and post-primary level. Perhaps we could have new campuses in education which would involve what we might call mainstream primary and secondary and special education schools all on the one campus. Ideally, that is where we should head in future school development so that there is proper integration on the campus overall. However, I do not disagree with the Deputy's fundamental point regarding the fragmentation. To Deputy Coppinger, I will seek out where that report is. There is no reason it should not be published. In terms of Hansfield and Ongar, we will engage. We will have 25,000 SNAs this year. We might now have more because the Government took a decision this morning in terms of the inclusive special school model, which will mean significantly more teachers and SNAs. This is because of the increased numbers who availed of the portal that was opened early last October. I cannot go into detail on every specific school but I do not know whether they have appealed that decision by the NCSE in respect of the number of SNAs they have sought. Deputy Heneghan raised the issue of the modular building. I will ask the Minister for education to respond. I do not know if the Deputy has talked to the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, about this or not. Regarding the Save our SNAs campaign, I will meet the group and anyone who wants to meet me. My main point was that we are not in the zone where we have to save SNAs, because the number of SNAs is expanding. We will have a workforce planning framework for SNAs. Redeployment means that there will be employment security. I have a great commitment to SNAs. I introduced the concept in 1998 when I was Minister for education, and the number has grown exponentially. I see it increasing. The school therapy service is very important. I also think we have to look at other methods and supports that schools may require, such as behavioural therapy over time. There is not a one-size-fits-all model for how we approach children in need. On the Before We Die campaign, I have met the group. At the next meeting of the disability committee, we will be looking specifically at that shelter issue. I have spoken to the Ministers for housing and disability. It will take a whole-of-government approach to make sure that we can provide adequate sheltered housing and supported housing for adults with disabilities so as to relieve their parents of the stress and anxiety they are currently experiencing. Deputy Ó Murchú referred to the wage subsidy campaign and the all-Ireland, did he?
Sentiment score: 0.21
For the all-Ireland?
Sentiment score: 0.00
There must be a lot of them from Cork, are there?
Sentiment score: 0.00
I will follow that up. It is not available on the date, is it?
Sentiment score: 0.00
It rarely is though for the special services, is it?
Sentiment score: 0.40
He cannot get to the match.
Sentiment score: 0.00