I thank the Minister of State for a comprehensive reply. As he noted, there were 370 admitted to hospital in the last few days of November and early December and for the week ending 9 December there were 335 admissions. That is a huge demand on our health service. Therefore, everyone will agree at this stage that we need to identify the best way forward with the use of these vaccines and whether we should have a nationwide programme, in particular for children under the age of two or under the age of five, but also…

I ask the Minister for Justice to outline in detail the progress to date in respect of a single application process for employment permits and visa applications and the interdepartmental group established to review the matter.

The Department of Justice is processing its side but there is a delay between the two Departments. What timescale are we talking about from start to finish, from the time of the application being submitted for the work permit and the end of the whole process of getting the visa? There still appears to be quite a delay. Companies are running into difficulties on this matter. Then we still have people who, for instance, find that the delay is causing them to lose people they want to recruit in, especially people who …

Over the past six to seven years we have increased the number of staff in our hospitals and the health service generally by over 40%. We have moved from 103,000 whole-time equivalents working in the health service to over 143,000. However, we have not increased the infrastructure available to them. For instance, a lot of consultants are finding that they have only one half day per week in theatres. There is a proposal to put surgical hubs in place in a number of centres and hospitals around the country. One issue t…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue debate. I previously raised this issue over 12 months ago, I think. The response I got was that there would not be a move by the Department to treat home tutors as employees of the Department. Home tutors are paid directly by the Department and taxes are deducted by the Department when payment is made. In other words, home tutors have all the indications of being employees as opposed to subcontractors. The issue has changed over the past few months. There …

I know this area is not under the Minister of State's remit. I fully understand that. However, we had the same problem with people working in RTÉ who were treated as self-employed. When that was reviewed, it turned out many of them had to be treated as employees. The issue has also changed because of the Supreme Court decision. It is like the people working for the pizza delivery company. It could technically be said those delivery people were employed by the people who wanted pizza delivered to their house rather …

I support the Minister. The work she has done stands out in the sense of the work being done daily by the Garda. In the last 12 months alone, the Garda has seized more than €271 million worth of illegal drugs, 1,575 firearms and 1,780 knives and dangerous instruments. This is the result of the proactive work of gardaí on the ground, including the work being done by community gardaí. The Department, the Garda and the Minister are working extremely hard to make sure we have a safe country to live in. It is important …

I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter. I know that health is not his area but I appreciate his taking this so late in the evening. All of those involved in the whole area of rare diseases, both families and those involved in developing new drugs, are concerned at worsening trends which suggest that rare disease patients in Ireland are being subjected to even longer waiting times before acquiring access to life-changing and life-saving orphan medicines in comparison with previous years. The latest EFP…

I thank the Minister of State. I fully appreciate the funding that has been made available. However, we need to remember the figure I gave at the start. I know very many new orphan drugs have been made available over the past two or three years. We need to remember that we are still talking about the average number of days from approval by the European Medicines Agency to being available here is 877 days. The Alliance of Rare Disease Companies and also the people who have a family member with a rare disease are loo…

Could I just ask the Minister of State about the issue I raised about a liaison person to be appointed? That would take out a lot of the uncertainty within the Department on that.

Many houses suffered severe damage as a result of recent flooding. Some people have had to spend over €100,000 in refurbishment and replacing furniture. In order to take remedial action we have been advised it may have to go through the planning process. Can the Department work with local authorities on using section 181 of the Planning Act 2000 in order to expedite flood relief programmes, especially where remedial action can be put in place in order to prevent a reflooding occurring? Someone might spend €100,000 …

It is an emergency.

There is a section in the planning Act so-----

-----let us use it.

A large number of GPs have contacted me on this issue and I have met some of them. What normally happens with GPs in the general medical scheme, GMS, who are in a partnership practice is that the money comes into the practice, it is lodged into the practice account and GPs pay tax on the basis of the salary drawn from the practice. That is under strict guidance of the accountancy practice which has been in place for a long number of years. My understanding is that Revenue has decided that for any GP in the GMS, the…

I welcome the second-last paragraph of the Minister of State's reply, which states that the Minister intends to bring forward an amendment on Report Stage of the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023. The problem is that all the GPs who signed the contract understood that when they got income under the GMS scheme, it could go into the partnership account. The practitioners are not looking for such income, once it goes into a partnership account, to be treated as company income because of the far lower rate of tax on company in…

As the Taoiseach is aware, there has been a 40% increase in the population of the country. There has been a huge population increase in the Cork area in particular. The Government decided there would be a new elective hospital built in Cork. My understanding was that a design team was appointed 12 months ago. When the Secretary General of the Department of Health was before the health committee the week before last, he advised the design team for designing the hospital still has not been appointed. He said while a …

What action is the Department taking to increase opportunities for women in agriculture, given that women are under-represented in the Irish agriculture sector? Will data collection will be undertaken under the current CAP programme to inform the design of schemes in future programmes in such a way as to increase women's opportunities in agriculture? Will the Minister make a statement on the matter?

The 2020 census of agriculture showed that the agricultural labour force amounted to 278,600 people, with 26.96% of these being female and 73.04% male. Data on farm structure in 2016 showed that, of the 137,100 family farms, females were registered as being in charge of only 12%. Just 3.8% of farms are registered with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as being in joint female and male names. Some 26.96% of the workforce is made up of women but the number of females deemed as being in charge by the …

On the 3.8% figure, where joint registration is involved, surely the Department can make more progress on that. Some 3.8% of farms are jointly registered with the Department, both male and female. That is a very low figure.