The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, will know that I live by a lovely beach at Rossbeigh in south Kerry. The Minister of State did us the honour of visiting us on his second last trip to Kerry. We are plagued by coastal erosion, storms and damage to our coastline. Since the Minister of State was down with us, we have had a high tide and the public road down by the beach was closed off for a number of days. If we do not get funding fairly soon the play area, including the playground and the tennis court, will be damaged yet again. I ask that the Minister of State would assist Kerry County Council with funding to strengthen the works there and to carry out additional works. On that same day the Minister of State also visited Cromane, a five-minute drive from Rossbeigh, where he met a number of local families whose homes have been subject to flooding. As I keep saying, there is a big difference between rainwater flooding and seawater flooding. It is a different ball game when you have the Atlantic Ocean inside your home. I have witnessed a number of occasions when there has been 3 ft of salt water inside people's homes. Once a place has been flooded it is absolutely impossible to get insurance again. The people there, the residents of Cromane Lower, are living on edge every time there is a high tide. Where the problem really lies is when it coincides with a storm. Our storms are getting more frequent and urgent action is required. The residents cannot sleep in their beds when there are high tides. I plead with the Minister of State again today to come to the assistance and to the rescue of the residents of Cromane Lower. The same applies to Glosha, which is in Cromane as well. Going back the road from Glenbeigh to Cahersiveen there is Whitestrand Beach over the water from Cahersiveen. It is subject to continuous erosion. The public toilets are in danger of being washed away. I ask that emergency funding be made available there. Back along the Ring of Kerry road towards Waterville, there is a huge problem with coastal erosion. Submissions have been made regarding Waterville as well. Again, I ask that funding be made available. Regarding Glenbeigh, just a mile from Rossbeigh beach the Minister of State met with residents of Incheraigh. Their homes were flooded. They spent an absolute fortune over the years. They came up here to see a predecessor of the Minister of State, the current Tánaiste, Simon Harris, when he was Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works. They were pleading for funding and were successful on that occasion. The embankment there was in the charge of the old Land Commission. This is a grey area. Historically, the residents would pay an annual fee to the Land Commission and in return it would carry out emergency protection works. That scheme should be reintroduced because they are in no man's land. There are other big schemes. I thank the Minister of State for the funding he has announced. He was in Listowel, which is a massive scheme. I congratulate the Office of Public Works and, indeed, Kerry County Council for the tremendous work they did there. There are other schemes in Tralee, Killarney and Kenmare. The Minister of State is very familiar with these, and he is very much on top of his brief, to be fair. I commend him on his interest and on what he is doing. I hope the Government gives him more funding to carry out all these works.

I thank Deputy Cahill for raising this important matter. I am very familiar with the coastal erosion and flooding issues in County Kerry, having visited twice this year. Coastal erosion and localised flooding issues are a matter, in the first instance, for every local authority to investigate and address. Local authorities can undertake these works with their own resources. In 2009, the Office of Public Works, OPW, introduced the minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme. The purpose of the scheme is to provide 90% funding to local authorities to undertake studies on coastal erosion and minor flood mitigation works within their administrative areas. This minor works scheme generally applies where a solution can be readily identified and achieved, and the costs do not exceed €750,000. Applications under the scheme are assessed by the OPW having regard to specific economic, technical, social and environmental criteria set out in the scheme. To be approved for funding under the scheme, these benefits from the works must exceed their associated costs. To date, nationally, the OPW has approved over €70 million for over 900 unique local flood relief and coastal projects that are providing benefits to some 8,000 properties. Since 2009, the OPW has approved some €4.2 million in funding to Kerry County Council for some 40 projects. Some €2.9 million of this approved funding relates to coastal erosion works and studies. Under the minor works scheme, it is the responsibility of the local authority to advance the works, once approved by the OPW. This includes all environmental assessments, planning consents, health and safety requirements and landowner agreements. I recently announced revisions to this minor works scheme, including an increase in the maximum funding under the scheme to €2 million. My office is finalising the details of these revisions, and I expect to announce these details shortly. The OPW is also funding three local authority staff in Kerry County Council - a senior executive engineer, executive engineer and a senior staff member - to manage the delivery of these flood relief schemes.

I was co-opted onto Kerry County Council in January 1990 following the untimely passing of my father. My very first motion was in regard to coastal erosion. That day I referenced Rossbeigh and Cromane. It is ironic that I am speaking all these years later about the same areas. I acknowledge the money that has been spent over the years, but we are talking about now. We are talking about the present and the future. It is like the old saying that a stitch in time saves nine. Again, I am pleading with the Minister of State to allocate the necessary funding to Kerry County Council. We have a proven track record in the quality of the work along with the Minister of State's colleagues in the OPW. I want to emphasise that because I have seen their projects first hand and how good the completed project is. The businesses in Killorglin town along the River Laune are subject to tidal flooding and they are living in fear as well. It is a huge problem, not just in Kerry but nationally. There is an urgent need for funding to be made available. I ask the Government to make additional funding available to the Minister of State's Department because I know he will spend it, and it will be spent properly. I thank the Minister of State for his work. The top priority in Kerry - this is coming up at every single meeting of Kerry County Council and I have raised it here - is the residents of Cromane. They will have to relocate if they do not get help now. The damage this does is accompanied by fear and anxiety. Paschal Sheehy has covered the flooding in Cromane live on national television. I want to make sure that does not happen again and the only way that will be resolved is by funding being provided for the locations I have mentioned.

I fully appreciate where the Deputy is coming from. When I visited Kerry, I saw this issue at first hand and I spoke to the residents who are badly affected by it. I have set out the changes I have brought about in the minor works scheme to go from €750,000 to €2 million. It is not about the money; it is about the local authorities coming up with a scheme. I encourage the Deputy, as I encouraged other Members yesterday in the House, to go back to his local authority. We are funding staff to the local authorities. We encourage them to come up with a scheme. It has to be driven by the local authority. It is not driven by the Government or by the OPW. We fund the local authorities. If the local authority comes into my Department with a scheme and it meets the criteria, we will fund it. I do not want to see people in Kerry or any other part of the country suffering. Since I have taken up this role we are at a maximum. We have never seen the like of it spent before. That is €102 million with regard to flooding. We have 100 schemes at various stages taking place at present. That has never happened. That is the positivity that is happening within the Government but the people that Deputy Cahill represents feel we are not getting to them or reaching out to them. I encourage the Deputy to go back to the local authority. He has seen what we have done in Listowel. We went down. There was an issue and we moved with the local authorities. We saw the results of that when we saw the finished work. I want to work with Deputy Cahill, I want to work with the local authorities but most of all I want to work with the residents. I appeal to Deputy Cahill to go back to the local authority and sit down with the engineers to see whether a minor works or interim measures project can be done from an engineering point of view for the people the Deputy spoke about so eloquently. I will support them 100%. I do not want people to say that they need extra money but the Government is not delivering. It is not that. I have the money. I have a huge budget for flooding. The Government is very driven because we know what coastal erosion is doing now. Just out the road in Portrane, we have to try to deal with a very delicate situation over the next couple of days. I will work with Deputy Cahill going forward but I ask him to go back to the local authority and see if they can come up with a scheme.

I raise a serious matter brought to me by a constituent, a disabled woman who was in receipt of the employment support scheme. This support was fundamental. It enabled her to carry out her role, be productive and build a career on an equal basis with others. On the basis that this support was in place, she made the major decision to progress her career. Like any other employee, she successfully convinced a new employer that she should take on a more senior management role. She did so in good faith with the reasonable expectation that the employment support which enabled her to perform her role would continue with her just as her skills, experience and qualifications did and indeed do for every other worker. She was shocked to discover this support would not transfer with her and would not be available to her new employer. This happened during the probation period where performance, productivity and the ability to carry out core tasks under heightened scrutiny are required. The removal of this support placed her in an impossible position. She now feels being unable to meet productivity expectations, not because of inability or incompetence but because the reasonable support that enabled her to do the job has been withdrawn. In effect, she is being penalised for ambition. Remaining in her previous role would have preserved her support. Her decision to progress her career has resulted in its removal. This places her at a significant disadvantage compared with her non-disabled peers and amounts to discrimination in practice. Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires prohibition of discrimination in all matters concerning employment and obliges states to ensure reasonable accommodation and adopt measures that enable disabled people to enter, remain and progress in employment. The employment support scheme is such a measure. It directly enables her to work and develop a career on an equal basis with others. Replacing it with a wage subsidy scheme does little or nothing to support career progression at middle or senior management levels where success depends on personal supports for the employee rather wage subsidies to employers. I ask that the removal of this scheme from those who currently avail of it and wish to progress their careers be reviewed in light of the principles of providing reasonable accommodation, expectations, obligations under the employment equality Act, the commitment of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the employment pillar of the equality and disability strategy.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Cooney as an ábhar tábhachtach seo a ardú inniu. I thank Deputy Cooney for raising this issue. The employment support scheme was run by FÁS. It offered financial support to employers to cover a disabled employee’s employment. The scheme was open to the private sector only. The wage subsidy scheme came into operation as a pilot scheme in September 2005. It replaced the pilot programme for the employment of people with disabilities and the employment support scheme, both of which were closed to applicants at that time. Following a review of its pilot phase, the wage subsidy scheme was placed on a permanent, non-statutory footing in October 2008. Participants in the pilot programme for the employment of people with disabilities became part of the wage subsidy scheme. Any employee in an employment subsidised under the employment support scheme in 2005 when the scheme closed to new applicants was allowed to remain on the scheme but only in that specific employment. If the employment covered by the employment support scheme terminates or changes in the way suggested by Deputy Cooney, the employee cannot transfer their employment support scheme to a new employment but can instead apply for the wage subsidy scheme. Expenditure on the wage subsidy scheme over the past five years has been €2.95 million. The employment support scheme closed to new applicants in 2005. At that time, there were 474 employees in receipt of payments under the scheme in respect of 404 employers. Currently, there are 36 employees still in receipt of payment with 31 employers. The reduction has been due to changing jobs, retirement or switching to the wage subsidy scheme. Last year, the Department of Social Protection published a review of the wage subsidy scheme following a public consultation. The review made six recommendations. I have allocated an additional €3.7 million to implement the review’s recommendations. In April 2024, the minimum hours for the scheme were reduced from 21 to 15 hours. The wage subsidy scheme now includes employers in the community, voluntary and commercial semi-State sector while the employment support scheme was open to private sector only. In budget 2026, we provided for an increase in the subsidy rates paid under the scheme and an expansion in eligibility with regard to those with acquired disabilities. I have also made changes to the supports available to employers to make it more attractive for employers to work with people with disabilities. The employment support scheme is closed to new applications but we are committed to legacy cases and continuing their payment until their employment ends. The programme for Government commits to further reviewing the minimum hours requirement under the wage subsidy scheme for disabled people and to examining further increases to the payment rate. Those commitments are also reflected in the human rights strategy for disabled people to which the Deputy referred. I am happy to discuss this specific case with him offline to see if we can support this person's employer with regard to the wage subsidy scheme and also the workplace adaptation scheme.

I thank the Minister for his update. The maximum rate under the wage subsidy scheme is 50% of the minimum wage. State policy tells employers that disabled people can only work at entry level. We should come at it from the other side and build capacity and value by creating a pathway for those with a disability to progress to the highest levels they can attain which is important for those people. The core issue is that the new wage subsidy scheme is framed in terms of compensating an employer for an employee's perceived lack of ability. That is not empowerment, it is charity. The employment support scheme supports those with a disability to do a job to the fullest and has never been about a defect but about enabling people to contribute on an equal basis with others. The resources it has provided to this woman have allowed her to perform to the highest standard. This benefits her, her employers, her colleagues and wider society, which is very important for people with disabilities.

I thank the Deputy. As I outlined, when the employment support scheme closed in 2005, there were 474 employees in respect of 404 employers. Today, we have 1,518 employers availing of the scheme and over 2,500 employees. We are a long way off where I want to be, however, and I will be very focused on getting people with disabilities into the workforce because they have extraordinary skill and talent to offer. I am constantly reviewing the wage subsidy scheme. In budget 2026, we provided an increase in the base rate of the wage subsidy from €6.30 to €7.50, which is an increase of over 19%. Employers with up to six employees under this scheme will be paid the base rate from next April and employers with between seven and 16 employees are paid €8.50. Employers with 17 employees or more are paid €10 per employee. Employers that employ 25 or more active people with disability are also eligible for a grant of €30,000 towards the employment of an employment assistance officer. As such, we are very much focused on making that scheme work and making it more attractive to employers. I am also very focused on engaging with employers to encourage them to offer opportunities and in doing so highlighting the many companies that are doing that in every role, including management roles, front-facing roles and back office roles, and in using technology to support people to make the most of their talent. We have made changes to the workplace accommodation scheme to do that. I am happy to engage with the Deputy on the wage subsidy scheme, the benefits that are there for his constituent's employer and the supports that are there for them. We will certainly be in contact with him after this again.

I have been contacted by constituents who work in the ambulance service locally who asked me to request a rapid response vehicle at Tuam ambulance base. These workers are telling me they are under pressure. They are dealing with a very high volume of calls and they need more cover. The crews in Tuam cover a vast area across north and east Galway and south Mayo. The introduction of a second ambulance on a 24-7 basis in Tuam last year demonstrates the high volume of calls in the area and the need for this vehicle. The figures I have received show Tuam ambulance base responded to 3,578 calls in 2023, 5,297 calls in 2024 and 3,735 calls between January and August of this year. The local staff have told me they are never at the ambulance base because they are constantly out on calls. This vehicle would be at the base when they are out on calls to provide additional cover around the clock. A rapid response vehicle is not like a typical ambulance. It is a smaller vehicle that can respond more quickly. It would be staffed by an advanced paramedic, which is important and they can offer enhanced care and advanced life support in emergency situations. Having that cover there would ultimately contribute towards saving lives and achieving better outcomes for patients. They could administer various medications to treat different illnesses before a patient arrived at hospital, and time is obviously crucial in a lot of emergency situations. Tuam ambulance base is equipped to cater for a rapid response vehicle. There are advanced paramedics in the area who can operate it. This would allow them to support paramedic crews in the various ambulance bases across the region and not just Tuam, because Tuam is at the centre of a very wide region where these vehicles are not operating around the clock. It could provide cover in counties Mayo and Roscommon as well. The National Ambulance Service has informed me that provision of such a vehicle would have to be included in the HSE national service plan for it to be considered. There is a very strong case here on the basis of patients safety, ensuring better outcomes for people and ultimately saving lives. I ask the Minister of State to outline whether this is something that will be considered.

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, I thank Deputy O'Hara for the opportunity to respond on the topic of a 24-hour NAS rapid response vehicle at Tuam ambulance base. I assure Deputies the Government remains absolutely committed to investing in increasing capacity in our National Ambulance Service. The NAS allocation for 2025 includes €8 million for new service developments to provide up to 180 additional staff. This investment is focused on the provision of additional front-line emergency ambulance capacity, further expansion of NAS alternative care pathways and growing specialist service capacity, including critical care retrieval and aeromedical services. Continuous increases in Government investment in the NAS has raised total NAS staffing at the end of October 2025 to 2,486. This represents an overall growth in staff of 558 or 29% since 2020, of which over 85% are engaged in direct patient care roles. In response to the specific matter raised by the Deputy, I am aware this matter has been raised by him previously several times. In fairness to the Deputy, I was looking today and he has put in several parliamentary questions on this through 2025, so I can see he is very passionate about it. I know from working with the ambulance paramedics that they excel at what they do and they do great work, so it is important we recognise them here. I am informed by the NAS that while there was no provision to consider this in 2025, the HSE will reconsider development of this service as part of the ongoing HSE national service planning process for 2026. This is what I have been told today. In the meantime, I am aware there are two existing 24-7 RRVs operating out of the Merlin Park base in Galway, as well as from Recess and County Roscommon on a dynamic deployment basis. The HSE has also advised that it intends to increase capacity its West and North-West region with an additional NAS helicopter emergency medical service, HEMS, to be established in 2026. This will increase HEMS coverage for patients in the west and north-west of the country and improve access for rural and isolated patients to care. This is about them ultimately. I am also informed an additional 23 paramedics are scheduled to be deployed to the HSE West and North-West region, including in County Galway, this month to provide additional front-line capacity. As Dail colleagues will be aware, patient demand for NAS services continues to rise year-on-year nationally as well as in the HSE West North-West region, including in Tuam and environs. In 2024 there were nearly 430,000 urgent and emergency calls received from the public. This represents an 8% increase nationally on the previous year and urgent and emergency calls received by the NAS have risen by a further 6% to date this year. Despite the significant increase in patient demand, overall ambulance response performance has been largely maintained, both on a national basis and for the NAS west and north-west region. Performance in the year to September in the NAS west and north-west region for life-threatening red calls, which constitute over 95% of all emergency calls received, met the 2025 national service plan target of 45%. I reiterate my sincere gratitude to all NAS staff and all our ambulance services across the country, including in County Galway, for their continued commitment and dedication to patient care.

I welcome the commitment to consider this as part of the service planning process for 2026. I sincerely hope it is implemented. I also want to express my gratitude to the staff of the NAS but if we want to demonstrate our gratitude, we need to consider the level of pressure these crews are under and do everything we can to alleviate that and ensure a better service and better outcomes for patients, which is what it is all about. I urge the Minister of State and the National Ambulance Service to engage with staff in Tuam around this issue. They know better than anybody what the situation is like on the ground and what could improve it. I raise this issue on their behalf today. Ultimately, this is about better outcomes for people and saving lives. It deserves to be fully considered and I hope it is. We have had reports carried out into ambulance bases like Loughglynn, County Roscommon, which examined in detail the situation, level of calls and so on. Specific service improvements were implemented after that. That could be considered for Tuam as well, to take an in-depth look at the situation and what improvements could make a difference. I welcome the Minister of State's comments that this will be examined as part of the process for next year. We will wait and see what comes out of that. I hope it is a positive outcome.

I was looking back through the Deputy's parliamentary questions and, in fairness, he is working with ambulance paramedics on the great work they do. I know the Deputy will be committed to doing this. This will be looked at in 2026. I thank the Deputy for highlighting it. It is important we recognise the work ambulance paramedics do around the country. They do great work. The Government remains committed to investing in increasing capacity in our National Ambulance Service for patients in County Galway and across the country. In my opening statement, I focused on NAS front-line emergency response activity and developments in the west of the country. I will now reference the NAS's ongoing programme of strategic reform. Supported by sustained Government investment, the NAS is continuing to increase its capabilities and capacity to treat increasing numbers of patients at the most appropriate level of clinical need, including in their homes and communities. The Deputy will be aware it is important we do this. The NAS reform initiatives will better place the service to meet the demands of the rapidly growing and ageing population we have. Funding for new service developments this year will support further expansion and alternative care pathways designed to reduce the number of patients presenting at hospital emergency departments where there is no clinical requirement. In the first six months of 2025, nearly 30,000 patients were treated through the NAS alternative care pathway, with 40% of those patients not subsequently requiring to go into emergency departments. I acknowledge the professionalism and dedication of our workers and the vital service they provide for everybody.