Some 420 new special classes have been sanctioned. There will be more. Our objective is obviously that every child will have access to an appropriate school place. There has been exponential growth in the past two years, and the decision by the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to extend the deadline has resulted in applications from a higher number of children than was anticipated. We are now working flat out to meet that additional demand, which is far above what applied, for example, last year.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I was not aware that Ms Doolan is seeking a meeting. I will see what I can do.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I have the greatest of respect for her, given her views, commitment and perseverance. It was an extraordinary journey to make in the context of her views on Shannon Airport. However, we need to be clear that Shannon Airport is not a US military base. Spain and Italy have US military bases, but Ireland does not. We need to be very careful that we do not mischaracterise Shannon Airport. That would damage the airport. I have concerns in that regard. Throughout the war in Gaza, there have been attempts to mischaracterise Shannon Airport as some sort of military base. It had no role, good, bad or indifferent, in respect of Gaza, nor does it have a role in respect of the war between the US, Israel and Iran.
Sentiment score: 0.01
We are doing a number of things. We are recruiting more therapists. We are changing the system. There were too many therapists involved in the assessment of need process and not enough in the provision of therapy services. We are also creating a new school-based therapy service, starting with special schools. There will be speech and language therapists and occupational therapists in the special schools and we will extend that into the mainstream as we progress. The Minister for education received funding this year from the Government with a view to implementing in-school therapy services in our special schools and we hope that the first phase of that will conclude in the next school year. We are committed to doing that and to building it up. That will be key because it would mean regular interaction for children with particularly severe needs on a regular basis with speech and language therapists.
Sentiment score: 0.21
I advocated strongly with the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, although it was the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, who responded. This is a matter for CIÉ and Bus Éireann. They have responsibilities too, and the board has responsibilities.
Sentiment score: 0.10
We write the cheque, but when it comes to health and safety and the protection of children, there are balances. The buck stops with the company, if we are honest. I hope that this initial breakthrough, whereby up to eight children can be driven by people up to 72 years of age, will be expanded. Perhaps we will learn lessons from this and see how it works, with a view to being in a position to expand it.
Sentiment score: 0.43
First of all, I introduced SouthDoc to west Cork, so I am a great believer in SouthDoc and that whole model. I thank Dr. Fiona O'Reilly for the work that she is doing. We are not responsible here in the Dáil for every management decision at local level or in the various co-ops. This is the first time that the Deputy has brought this to my attention. The Minister is here as well and she will follow up on the case. We should avoid language like "bully boy tactics" because the Deputy is impugning the character of people in management in a given organisation. It is not the kind of language-----
Sentiment score: 0.09
It gives licence to people to do things. We need to watch our language when we are talking about public servants.
Sentiment score: 0.00
That is all I would say now.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is interesting that more and more people now want to continue their careers into their 60s. That is a positive story about lifespan. We are living more healthily with a better quality of life. As the Deputy is aware, the legislation allowed it to 62 years. He is ahead. He has all the detail. As he said, 112 gardaí have availed of the opportunity to continue working since the September 2024 increase to the mandatory age of retirement from 60 to 62. The Garda Commissioner may, with the Minister's consent, go beyond that age of 62 for retirement. To date, the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has already consented to a number of such requests from the Commissioner and will continue to do so when requested. However, I will talk to the Minister. What the Deputy is saying is a good idea.
Sentiment score: 0.28
For the fire services, we have had 629 new recruits since the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, agreement of 2023, but-----
Sentiment score: 0.20
-----I am generally in favour.
Sentiment score: 0.44
We have to reflect the-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----increased lifespan with increased working time and give that option to people.
Sentiment score: 0.27
First of all, it is 32 cent on diesel that the Government has reduced prices by, and 27 cent on petrol. If the fuel package scheme is taken along with the green diesel reduction, you are up to 20-plus-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Deputy described it as 10 cent. It is 32 cent. If we can have factual analysis, that would be fine. If we did not do it, petrol prices would be 32 cent higher now. Sinn Féin has voted against reductions twice now. The key is that we have to-----
Sentiment score: 0.03
-----provide measures, as we did in the budget, to try to cushion, first of all, low-income groups. We felt we had to target prices there. The child support payments and so on were significantly increased, and we will in the forthcoming budget have a very strong focus on the cost of living. We will try to do it in an embedded way, not as just a one-off, but we will examine all options. The Deputy mentioned third level colleges.
Sentiment score: 0.16
The Minister, Deputy James Lawless, has done a lot in terms of access.
Sentiment score: 0.00
First of all, I thank the Deputy for her long-standing advocacy and work on this project. It is a large-scale project involving both refurbishment and extension of Boyne Community College. It is actively progressing through stage 2A, with work ongoing. As the Deputy knows, stage 2A involves a design team, developing designs, full cost planning of the campus project, and preparing documentation to facilitate the lodging of statutory approval applications to Meath County Council as part of stage 2B. There are complexities on the site in terms of design. Work is ongoing to bring this stage to a conclusion as soon as possible. The Deputy is correct that significant modular accommodation has already been provided to the school. The next step is obviously to complete this stage 2A process. The issue then from a funding and policy position is to get it funded once we get through stage 2A to stage 2B. That is an issue that the Government is considering more generally in respect of school accommodation. A number of projects have been sanctioned, but there is a big-----
Sentiment score: 0.17
To be fair, the Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, alerted all of us to the ferry companies operating to the islands when we were discussing the package at the weekend. It will be covered under the transport package. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, will ensure the ferry companies operating to the islands are covered. I appreciate the Deputy raising the question because it is an important one and Government was very happy to be in a position to do that. It is an important form of connectivity to our islands, which are a treasured part of our heritage, but also people need these ferries as their lifeblood.
Sentiment score: 0.38
It is a specific school project. Obviously, it has grown very fast from what the Deputy is saying. Has it gone from a three-teacher school to a ten-teacher school?
Sentiment score: 0.00
There are special classes and so on. We have a very large school expansion programme on the way. Huge funding has been allocated to it. I will alert the Minister to the fact the Deputy raised it here this morning.
Sentiment score: 0.25
First of all, I will engage with the Minister in respect of this issue. I have in the past. It was increased, I believe, two or three years ago.
Sentiment score: 0.31
I am sympathetic to an increase in the threshold because there is a cohort of people working whose income limits are not high enough to sustain a mortgage or cannot get a mortgage and who would like the opportunity to access social housing. We need to try to seek ways to accommodate people in that cohort. I will talk to the Minister about that. We have an open view on it.
Sentiment score: 0.22
We actually did do targeted measures. The fuel allowance in the first package-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
Sorry, it is not less than 10%, actually.
Sentiment score: -0.08
No. The bulk of the last measure is for the general reduction of excise on diesel and petrol, which will impact on everybody. That is far greater than the €100 million package for agriculture and €120 million for transport. By the way, transport is the lifeblood of everybody. We are not doing haulage for the sake of hauliers alone. We are doing it because we want to get goods and services across the country. We want to put stuff on supermarket shelves. We want to export goods that are produced by workers. It is a bit inaccurate, to be polite, to do these simplistic calculations. Food production is very important for the economy. Both food and production and the haulage industry are engines for all of us to keep our economy going and workers going to work and so on like that.
Sentiment score: 0.07
We are working on the cost of disability issue in terms of the budget.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I will talk to the Minister concerned. We are looking at an additional €700 million increase in the current budget of the Department of education. It is largely around increased teacher allocation. That is over and above the budget that was passed only in October last. School transport costs will increase very substantially because the numbers are increasing all of the time but I will talk to the Minister. I will talk specifically about that issue of the distance threshold for the concessionary applicant and ask the Minister to engage with the Deputy on it. I will talk to her as well.
Sentiment score: 0.20
I do not believe the main street of the capital should be shut down for a week. I do not believe motorways should be blockaded for a week because it is an infringement on a basic human right - the right of free movement. It is a very basic right. I have problems with that form of protest. I have articulated that from the very beginning. It is regrettable that others in the House cannot accept that the right to free movement should not be restricted by self-appointed groups. There are legitimate ways to protest - no issue with that - but the idea that you cannot drive on a motorway because of a blockade is a terrible restriction. I read in the newspaper this morning that a mother of a child with a life-limiting condition had to cancel a hospital appointment in Temple Street because of the blockade and conveys. That is not acceptable. There was a cancer consultant who spoke to a friend of mine. The consultant spent a week counselling cancer patients whose appointments for chemotherapy had been postponed. The cancer patients were worried about not getting that appointment, is it going to grow, etc. There needs to be some balance here and we need to have a discussion and some consensus as to what is right and what is wrong.
Sentiment score: -0.32
There had been issues with the administration of ACRES, which is a €1.5 billion scheme. By the way, a lot of the funding from this Government for ACRES comes from the carbon tax. It is 60% funded by the Government and 40% by the European Union Common Agricultural Policy. I would take the Deputy's point. The Minister is doing everything he can to improve and enhance the administrative capacity of ACRES. The scheme that is announced is an important scheme of €100 million in value. There has to be a degree of working out of that both in terms of farmers, usage of fuel - some categories of farming have a higher usage of fuel than others - and then the farm contractors as well. We are fully aware of the need to have a seamless and a proper delivery system in place.
Sentiment score: 0.15