I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. I note he said earlier to another Deputy that there was engagement on this very issue. He also said he would take decisions if it dragged on, which unfortunately it has. Serving personnel are becoming very frustrated, demoralised and concerned about the significant exemptions being sought by military management and the Department of Defence, as I alluded to earlier. From my engagement with serving and former personnel, there is close to a complete breakdown of trust between servi…

I met serving and retired Defence Forces members who articulated the concerns I have outlined this morning. I do not believe it is a case of "negativity being articulated". The fact of the matter is there are outstanding issues which have gone on for too long. There is demoralisation, a sense of feeling demoralised and a strong sense of frustration. These matters must be addressed in order to promote our Defence Forces more, as they should be. To make it more positive, these issues must be addressed because they ar…

The crisis within children’s disability network teams, CDNTs, is well known to all of us. Major problems around recruitment and retention have practically become embedded within the system. I was shocked by information I received from the HSE’s disability services yesterday. It reveals how stark the crisis has become across all nine community healthcare organisation, CHO, areas, especially CHO 8, which encompasses my constituency of Laois-Offaly. The staff vacancy rate ranges from 19% in CHO 3 to the highest level …

I thank the Tánaiste for his response but I believe serious urgency is needed here with what has happened. The HSE has confirmed that in CHO 8, some 3,129 children are waiting between three and 12 months. Those children are being failed. The Tánaiste has outlined the measures which are being taken and I acknowledge them. However, the HSE has confirmed to me that from an overall analysis of data from 2021 and 2022, there was an increase of just 2% in the workforce across all CDNTs. This information is coming from th…

Ní bheidh mé ag tógáil an ama go léir. Tá áthas orm labhairt ar an mBille seo inniu. All of us will have received the assessment of the Bill's strengths and weaknesses from GSOC. I hope the analysis will inform the debate and the Government's approach to any amendments that may be made to this important Bill. GSOC has stated that its primary concern is that the draft legislation has not fully embraced the principle of institutional independence that should underpin an ombudsman's office. GSOC is further concerned t…

The upcoming European Council meeting will discuss, among other issues and items on the agenda, the ongoing war in Ukraine and energy prices. We know the energy price crisis here is ongoing despite the recalibrated temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. I also know from replies to parliamentary questions I submitted to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that the recently announced €350 million cost of purchasing temporary generation turbines will add approxima…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. It provides for the further extension of six agri-tax reliefs currently due to expire on 30 June 2023, and that extension is certainly welcome. In the brief time I have I will focus on just two sections of the Bill. The first is section 2. It provides for amendments to the rates of mineral oil tax, MOT, and for an extension to the current VAT prior to an incremental restoration of the full rates to 31 October. The reply to a recent parliamentary question I submitted r…

When the pillar banks and, indeed, the European Central Bank came calling for access to Ireland's cash in 2008, they were given that access. It cost the Irish State dearly and will go on costing the Irish State dearly for generations to come as our children and grandchildren remain saddled with hundreds of millions in debt that they had no hand, act or part in incurring. I have no great desire to rehash the past but I mention this because it highlights in dramatic fashion the social and financial debt that banks ha…

Page 94 of the programme for Government states the Government is committed to delivering education programmes to meet the needs of all students and all children in society. However, we have seen there are huge delays in respect of the delivery of ASD units and support hubs for primary and secondary schools. St. Brendan's Community School in my constituency received approval for an ASD unit four years ago but it still has not been delivered. There is huge concern over the issue. A solution may be to redeploy staff f…

I wish the Minister of State the very best in her new role. It is fantastic to see a female Minister of State in the House. I welcome this Bill as an effort to respond to the concerns that have been raised for many years by individual credit unions and more widely by the ILCU. All of us here are aware of the enormous social value and the financial contribution that credit unions make to our communities, sporting organisations and voluntary bodies; the list goes on. I have consistently engaged with credit unions in …

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate on a motion on the ambulance service and, in particular, its call on the Government and NAS to urgently review the adequacy of the spatial distribution and coverage of the ambulance fleet to ensure an equitable distribution of services across regions, to reduce reliance on overtime and long shifts and to reach response time targets. Before I make any further points, I commend our paramedics who do an excellent job. They are, however, caught in a broken system, one t…

Before I begin, I wish to declare an interest. My husband and I jointly own a property and are landlords. For a policy to be deemed a success, it must be the case that the solutions it proposes do not bring about a worse state of affairs. This is common sense. However, I fear that we are in real danger of creating such a toxic environment for landlords that we may be indirectly making the situation significantly worse for renters. I have submitted a number of parliamentary questions to the Department of Housing, Lo…

As the Taoiseach will be aware, earlier this week, it was reported that the independent energy operator Pinergy is to offer customers a very welcome 7.1% reduction in electricity costs. This will equate to an average reduction of €183 per customer. This has clearly shown us that the other energy companies have nowhere to hide. In the event that the other energy companies do not give customers reductions, will the Taoiseach direct the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to come to the House and explain the rationale for fleecing…

Does Deputy Fitzmaurice mind if I take one minute?

Why not? That normally happens in here. Is there any particular reason?

Oh for God's sake, it is only a small accommodation-----

-----and it has been done in this Chamber before.

That is not fair.

That is not fair because I have seen other people accommodated in here.

That is not fair.