I have raised this matter previously and I raise it again. It is about the problems being encountered by teachers who provide home tuition because they are treated as self-employed by the Department. Even though the Department pays them, it deducts the tax. They are in category S in relation to PRSI and they have very little access to other services. They do not get paid during the summer months yet they are not allowed to enter into arrangements to provide tuition during the summer months. These people are not sub…

It is the employer.

I want to raise the issue of the discrimination that is occurring in the moneys being allocated for private nursing homes compared with public nursing homes. As the Minister of State is aware, we have a situation in Cork where a nursing home with 73 beds has decided to withdraw from the fair deal scheme. It is interesting to go through the figures on this. The average cost of a public nursing home bed per week is €1,823. The average cost of a private nursing home bed is €1,079 per week, so the difference is €744. O…

Those are the figures and I have a full table for every county. Unless this matter is tackled we will have fewer beds available for people. In the past three months I have been trying to get people out of Cork University Hospital. People were in that hospital three to four months longer than they should have been because they could not get an appropriate bed in a step-down or nursing home facility. That is costing time for everyone. We need hospital beds and there are huge pressures in that regard. If we cannot get…

I fully accept the Minister of State's commitment to this area, and that of the Government, but there now is a problem. In the Cork area, for example, the amount paid for public nursing home beds is one of the lowest in the country. I fully accept that. However, the increase allowed in Cork for public nursing home beds was 10.4%, whereas the increase for private nursing homes was 2.7%. The Minister of State and I both know that costs have increased substantially as regards wages, salaries and insurance. All those c…

This question is to ask the Tánaiste to provide an update on his engagement with PDFORRA and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I thank the Minister. I welcome that budget 2023 provided the largest amount ever for the defence sector. We are now in a very competitive employment market. The role the Defence Forces play is extremely important. When they are abroad, they provide a very good service to the UN, as well as part of an EU peacekeeping project. It is important that we provide the level of support and remuneration that they deserve. The Reserve Defence Force provides significant service to the Defence Forces and the State. The report …

A number of people will automatically retire from the Defence Forces. Is the Minister satisfied that we will attract a sufficient number of new people into the Defence Forces over the next three to four years? It is of concern that numbers have decreased. We need to make sure that we not only maintain numbers but increase them.

The Minister mentioned the availability of 4,500 bed places. I wonder how many of those are currently occupied because in many cases, as he outlined earlier, accommodation was left not maintained over the years and not improved and brought up to modern-day standards. In my question, I asked had the Department put in place a five-year plan setting out clear goals annually for the next five years. The Defence Forces are crucial to us as a country. It is extremely important that we provide standard accommodation for p…

Could I ask-----

I very much welcome what the Tánaiste has outlined with regard to projects that are up and running at the moment, particularly for Haulbowline and Collins Barracks in my constituency. I know the Tánaiste has set out what is planned for Collins Barracks and what is going ahead but is that going to be added to over the next number of years? Is there a plan to add to that? It is a major centre for the Defence Forces and a large number of Defence Forces members are based there. Will it be further expanded?

I welcome the Minister of State's comments. One of the problems we have now in respect of the tendering process is the long period from when the tenders come in to when they are signed off on. That has happened on quite a number of projects over recent years and costs continue to rise. It is really important that there is no further delay in awarding the contract. After that, the timescale must be short for the person who is awarded the contract to accept it and say they are signing off on it and are going to comme…

In fairness, I think everything has been done by the Department. As the Minister of State outlined, the matter comes under the remit of Cork City Council. We must make sure that a timely decision is made by the council to award the contract and that the person who gets it accepts it in a timely manner in order that we will not have to go back out to tender at a later stage. This is a vital project for the Glanmire area. Very little has happened there because of the wait for the scheme to be put in place. We and the…

I have raised this matter previously in the House. In fact, I raised recently with the Tánaiste the issue of the many vacant properties, and part of the reason they are vacant is because there is defective title. There is a need for local authorities to be more proactive in using compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, to assist the landowners to get good title in order that they can go and develop the properties. I really think that is something on which the Department should work with local authorities to resolve the i…

There is a difference of €744 per bed per week between the cost of a nursing home bed in a public nursing home and the cost of such a bed in a private nursing home. This does not make sense. In County Laois, for instance, the average cost is €2,585 per public bed while the average cost of a private bed in a private nursing home is €1,039. That is a difference of 148%. Why is there such a disparity? The problem now is that it is difficult to get people out of hospitals. The nursing homes cannot pay for the additiona…

I want to raise the issue of home school tutors. At the moment, they are regarded as self employed, yet they are paid by the Department of Education. They are on a category S stamp in relation to the social services. They are not entitled to get any benefits during the school holiday time period. It is my understanding that a number of cases are before the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. It is time for the Department to deal with this issue and to treat them as employees rather than as being self-employed, in …

Yes.

I thank the Minister. I very much welcome all the work that the Department is doing in town and village renewal to date but also that the Minister plans to have completed in 2023. I am wondering about the co-ordination between the Department and the local authorities because I have come across one issue recently in relation to the vacant property grant where an application was submitted over four months ago and still the local authority had not signed off on it. Is there any co-ordination to ensure that there are c…

-----which would allow the local authority to buy and to sell again to the person who wants to develop because it would rectify the title issue.

I very much welcome the funding the Minister has outlined for Cork. As my colleague from Cork, Deputy Stanton, clearly outlined, it is a huge county. There are lots of towns and villages throughout the place. It is important, therefore, that there is co-ordination and that where communities have a real drive on to renew and revitalise their area, there is no hurdle put in their way which prevents it from happening. It is important that there is that co-operation from the Department with the local authority in makin…