The CSO residential property prices for County Laois showed a jump of 12% in a 12-month period. Wage inflation has not jumped to meet this. This is making it harder for ordinary workers to purchase their first home. Due to the spiralling prices more workers are reliant and waiting for some type of an affordable housing programme to come onstream. So far the Government has delivered only 30 affordable properties in Laois and they have not figured in County Offaly. The people waiting for assistance from the Governmen…

While there was a great deal of money in the budget this year, it failed people with disabilities, their families and carers. The Government failed the 1,752 carers in County Laois and the 2,182 carers in County Offaly. Those are just the people in receipt of payments and, of course, there are thousands who do not get payments. Many of those are struggling to secure respite care and people are fighting to secure home care packages for the elderly. Waiting times are getting longer, and there is a shortage of home ca…

I raise the commitment in the programme for Government with regard to improving primary care services. There is a chronic shortage of GPs in Laois and Offaly. There are 37 practising GPs in Laois, which is one for every 2,483 of the population. Five have resigned in the past two years and four have retired, which is a loss of nine. In Offaly, there are just 31 practising GPs, which breaks down to 2,683 of the population to each GP, and there has been a loss of four in the past two years. The IMO recommends that it …

Take it up with the Minister for Health.

Go back to bed.

I raise the issue of places in primary schools for children with autism. Parents in a number of areas of County Laois have raised it with me. In several areas of the county, parents cannot get their children a place for next September in an autism spectrum disorder unit. One parent tells me that she has applied to 19 schools with no success and is at her wits' end. A number of other parents are in the same category with the same problems. I do not need to tell the Minister that Laois is a county with an expanding p…

We should not have any further delay in reform of the licence fee and funding for RTÉ. This is for the future of RTÉ. The Government has dithered on this and cannot seem to reach an agreement. Sinn Féin's motion proposes an end to the licence fee model to be replaced with direct Exchequer funding for sustainable public sector broadcasting. RTÉ has already been given ad hoc bailouts without it being put on an accountable or properly sustainable basis. The financial scandals at RTÉ over the last 12 months have follow…

I wish to raise the issue of driver test waiting times. I got figures recently in response to a parliamentary question and there is a waiting time of 24 weeks in the Birr test centre, 25 weeks in Portlaoise and 43 weeks in Kilkenny city. This is according to the figures I got. It is a scandalous delay. I have taken up this matter before with the Minister. It is particularly affecting young drivers in rural areas who are trying to get to work where there is no bus service early in the morning or no Local Link. The R…

I ask the Taoiseach to get the Minister to take a hands on approach with this issue and to try to get it addressed with the RSA.

It needs a push. It needs action.

The fact is that the housing situation continues to get worse under the Government's watch. The fact is that rents are at an all-time high and rising. The Government has missed its social and affordable housing targets for three years in a row. It is a fact that in County Laois new rents have increased by 11.4% in 12 months. In fact, it is almost impossible to enter the private rental market. Sky-high rents are placing a massive financial and mental burden on low-paid workers. There is not one single home to rent i…

I welcome the opportunity to raise this very important issue with the Minister of State. As he knows, autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units are very important. It is important children have access to them. We have a chronic shortage of ASD units at second level in all of County Laois. Good work has been done in existing ASD units at primary level and in some second level colleges in the country where they exist. However, we need expansion of it because of the enrolment. We have had a rapid population increase in the…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I have followed what he said here very carefully. I welcome the fact there is some forward planning happening under the National Council for Special Education. That is really important. On this forward planning, the Minister of State said works are under way for the 2024-25 school year and there are 389 new special classes. In Laois, I have spoken to people in the second-level educational sector who deal in special education and who are running second-level schools, boar…

Two of them, as I understand it, do not have enough physical space already but the rest of them all require buildings.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to do that. The Minister of State might just give me a response on where each one of those schools is at. That would be really helpful.

I am asking about the role a private company will play in Uisce Éireann's capital investment plan. As we know, Uisce Éireann is a public body and so the finances will be scrutinised by the Comptroller and Auditor General. There has been talk about having a referendum to ensure it is kept in public ownership. I am concerned this might be the slippery slope to some privatisation.

The way of really ensuring that, as the Minister of State knows, is to have a referendum for constitutional change. There should be an amendment to the Constitution to enshrine that. The concern here is that a private company has been lined up - Mott MacDonald has been named in media - to provide services in relation to capital works for Uisce Éireann. As I understand it, the partner of that company is J. Murphy and Sons. In the press release from that company back in October, Mott MacDonald stated "The building, r…

Yes, but Uisce Éireann has a whole battalion of engineers and people who should be capable of project management. The Minister of State and I also know that DBOs are very expensive. Anyone who follows local authority budgets will see that every year in their annual budgets when they look at services that have been provided. While in theory it may be publicly owned, the fear is regarding the amount of private sector control over it. I understand that private companies will have to be brought in to design and build p…

I welcome the opportunity to raise this issue. I understand the Minister for Education is out of the country and I hope the Minister of State, who is present on behalf of the Government, will take back the message I am giving here this morning regarding the important matter of Coláiste Dhún Másc in Portlaoise, which was opened in 2017 to cater for the growing population of the town and the general area. The school has had to limit enrolment. The Minister of State is probably aware that Portlaoise is the fastest gro…

I thank the Minister of State for that reply. I am aware the meeting is happening tomorrow with the ETB and Department officials. Laois-Offaly Education and Training Board has a great record of delivering capital builds. Since the old VECs were amalgamated into a single body, it has really expanded and is providing huge education and training opportunities in both Laois and Offaly. I am confident of its part in this and welcome that the meeting is happening, which I was aware of before today. I am asking that we mo…