I thank the Senator for the opportunity to discuss this in the House. As Minister of State with responsibility for disability, and as I have said in this House a number of times, I am committed to delivering real and tangible solutions to enhance the capacity of our children’s disability services, and to provide better supports to children and young people with additional needs, as well as to their families. One of the solutions put forward was to develop an AON assessment hub. As the Senator is aware, during a Lab…

On reallocation of staff, I can tell the Senator that the part of the HSE teams which will always be reposted are the liaison officers. The reason is that the HSE holds the right to ensure the assessments are carried out within a legal framework. They will always be part of the HSE staff, so they will always be redeployed. The current configuration is new and transferred across so we will be backfilling into the teams. However, experience is really important in our hubs. Why is experience important? The first reaso…

I am grateful for the opportunity to provide some clarity and reassurance to the House that disability service providers are exempt from the extended recruitment freeze. Unfortunately, when I was listening to the commentary earlier on, I did not feel that was quite understood and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for giving me the opportunity to clarify this. The exemption includes section 38 and section 39 service providers, as well as HSE disability services. I heard one of Deputy Cullinane's colleagu…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I will take this off line with him and will also talk to the Minister of State at the Department of Education, Deputy Madigan, about it.

I am taking this debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health. I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to address the issue of dental services for children and the dental treatment services scheme in Laois and Offaly. The HSE public dental service provides dental care for children up to 16 years of age. This includes screening and necessary treatment for children at ages corresponding to second class, sixth class and, subject to capacity, fourth class. Emergency care is also provided for children up to …

I thank the Deputy. I have listened to the issue being raised today, but I have also heard it from colleagues in this Chamber. I have taken on board the points the Deputy has made. I can assure him that addressing access to dental care in Laois-Offaly, including for children and adult medical card holders, is a top priority for the Minister. The Minister has made substantial additional investment in oral healthcare services, both in 2022 and 2023. On the Deputy's query in relation to Laois, I will go back and direc…

Yes. Fundamental reforms are being progressed through implementation of the national oral health policy for which funding has been provided this year. The policy sets out the vision for the future of oral health services. While it has taken a number of years to bring it to complete fruition, there will be an earlier and continued emphasis on addressing the current access issues. These modernised services will be person-centred, prevention-focused and available locally, in line with the vision set out under Sláintec…

I thank the Deputy. The Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding in relation to the national roads programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, under the Roads Acts 1993-2015, and in line with the national development plan, NDP, the planning, design, improvement and upgrading of individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. TII ultimately delivers the national ro…

I am going to read the response. Due to the outlined funding constraints for national roads in 2020 to 2023, a prioritisation exercise was necessary. In line with the NDP and Government policy, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has allocated national road funding for 2023 in a manner which seeks to achieve the following key outcomes: protection and renewal of the existing national road network, progressing major projects in or near construction, progressing major projects which are pre-construction but well advanced…

I convey the apologies of my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, who cannot be here for this matter due to another commitment. On behalf of the Minister, I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this important matter here today and for giving me the opportunity to provide clarity on some issues. I must emphasise at the outset that management of the courts, operational matters and logistical functions are the responsibility of the Judiciary and Courts Service, which are independent in exercising their func…

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, I thank Deputy Durkan. I also thank the Deputy because the voice he raises here every week on the issue of parental alienation is reflective of what a lot of us receive in our offices weekly or monthly. Having been a spokesperson for children and youth affairs, I know the voice of the child is sometimes forgotten. We can write all the legislation in the world and all the rules and regulations but we must put the child at the centre and listen to the voice of that child. Th…

I thank the Deputy. I will be taking this issue on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended, set down a standard procedure for assessing applicants for social housing support. Under this procedure, a household may apply for support to one housing authority only. This may be the authority for the area in which the household normally resides or with which it has a local connection. …

While arrangements are in place to allow for the movement of HAP tenants between local authorities, wider consideration is being given to allowing movement between the social housing list in one local authority and another. The programme for Government provides for a package of social housing reforms, including a social housing “passport” to allow households to move from one local authority waiting list to another. An initial scoping exercise was carried out, which identified a range of practical and administrative…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I acknowledge that the numbers in his area are going in the wrong direction. This is true just in his area but in many areas and that is why when we launched the PDS roadmap approximately two weeks ago, one of the pieces within is the tender document for procuring additional supports outside of the HSE to ensure assessments of need are carried out in a timely fashion. The procurement document will be finished tomorrow and will be with me by Monday. At that stage, we will be able…

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the issues raised by Deputies tabling the motion. I would like to begin by echoing my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in her opening remarks and to thank the Deputies for their constructive and positive contributions to this important motion on the issue of home support. I want to acknowledge the input of all Deputies this morning. It is clear to me and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, that we are all motivated to ensure that our population hav…

I acknowledge it is an issue but at the end of the day, that is the rate set out in the tender document that was recently reviewed and agreed. Regarding the Deputy hauling me over the coals on disability, I have not yet reached that rate whereas at least in the case of older people, the tender document has been produced and agreed at €34 per hour. Unfortunately, it is not being passed on.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important question. The Department, along with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has engaged with the HSE to ensure the recruitment pause for certain grades does not unduly affect the provision of existing disability services. On the day we launched the roadmap, the Minister and I met Bernard Gloster, Bernard O'Regan and David Walsh. The whole purpose of the meeting was to outline that we were very concerned about what effect the pause would have on disability services. We clearly a…

That is ridiculous.

I appreciate exactly where providers are coming from and the uncertainty that correspondence caused, but I do not accept it will take months upon months for staff organisations were interviewing to be taken on for posts. Disability services are probably among the only services across the HSE that is recruiting at this moment in time and it is doing so across all the posts I laid out for the Deputy. To be honest with her, we have worked as speedily as we could and to be fair to Bernard Gloster, he has responded as q…

I reassure the Deputy that, as David Walsh said, this should ideally encompass residential, respite, personal assistance day services and CDNTs. He also said it would be limited to roles to which he referred. The entire disability service, be it respite, residential, personal assistance day services or CDNTs, the HSE and section 38 and section 39 organisations will continue to recruit. This is a real recognition that disability services need to recruit. There are hundreds of posts unfilled that I hope we will be ab…