I welcome this budget, particularly the health measures. The budget addresses three key health areas - managing the next phase of Covid-19, reducing waiting lists and improving accessibility, which is crucial. There is an overall increase of €1 billion in healthcare funding, with the budget providing a total of €22.5 billion for health expenditure in 2022, to include both current and capital spending. Some €250 million is provided in budget 2022 to tackle hospital waiting lists. There is an urgent need to prioritis…

I am working hard on it.

We are delivering three projects,-----

-----one of them less than half a mile from the Deputy's house.

We are delivering.

In the area of social protection, the programme for Government commits to recognising the importance of ancillary benefits and eligibility criteria to vulnerable groups, while noting that we all have a stake in a strong social protection system. It also commits to improving and changing disability services through better implementation and collaboration. However, we currently have an anomaly in our social protection system. Disability allowance is means-tested. The payment of a mortgage by a person who is on disabi…

I join the Minister and colleagues in conveying my deep concern in regard to what occurred with the disposal of perinatal organs and the hurt and upset caused to the families. It is difficult enough to suffer a loss without having to also deal with what occurred in this case. For most people, the birth of a baby is a happy event. It is also a time of celebration for an entire family. Currently, most pregnancies lead to the birth of a healthy baby. It can be easy to forget that this is not always the case. Alongside…

My question is on the tendering process and when a tender is submitted, where there is a variation between tenders one and five and a 16% gap in the amount being tendered. There is no process or provision for further engagement if there is a sudden increase in the cost of delivering a project between the time the tender is submitted and the time it is accepted by a Department. Can the regulations dealing with tendering be changed to accommodate that?

Will the Government consider implementing laws that would restrict the importation of tobacco products into the country exclusively to those with plain packaging that includes both pictorial and text warnings in both the Irish and English languages? A similar system that was introduced in Finland requires health warnings to be provided in words and pictures in both Finnish and Swedish. I am raising this issue because, during lockdown, the value of the sale of tobacco products in Ireland increased by €130 million. T…

I accept the Minister of State's reply in respect of tobacco products that are sold in Ireland, but my question referred to products being brought into the country. We allow people to bring in 800 cigarettes, compared with a limit of 200 in Finland. There is not the same requirement in respect of products being brought back by people returning from holidays or a business trip that the health warnings be in English and Irish, whereas the corresponding requirement does apply for products being brought into Finland. I…

My question relates to my constituency, Cork North-Central, one of the few areas in the country not to have been prioritised to date in the implementation of the national broadband plan. Will the Minister make a statement on the matter? The area is within a radius of between ten and 12 miles of Cork city.

The report my office received from NBI in the past week suggested that Inniscarra, Kerry Pike, Clogheen, Tower, Blarney, Grenagh, Whitechurch, White's Cross and Carrignavar will not even be considered until 2025. I have seen the map, which was also made available to me, and it appears that about 80% of the constituency, which is within a radius of 10 miles or 12 miles of the city, will not even have a survey carried out until 2025. That is my concern. I am surprised that it is that far down the list in terms of wor…

Part of the area to which the Minister referred is in Cork East and some of the Midleton area is coming into Cork North-Central. I wish to ask the Minister about targets for 2020, 2021 and 2022. I acknowledge that Covid had an effect and that the target set in 2021 as regards the number of connections will not be reached. Can changes be made to make sure that those targets can be reached at least, if not exceeded, towards the end of 2021 and especially in 2022?

I wish to raise the temporary assistance payment, TAP, scheme for nursing homes, which ceased on 30 June. The costs incurred by nursing homes have increased substantially over the past 18 months because of Covid-19. Those costs remain in place. I ask that the Government considers seriously the extension of the scheme. The UK has continued to extend additional support to all its nursing homes.

I ask the Minister to give serious consideration to changing the employment status or classification of home tutors governed by the home tuition grant scheme from self-employed to employee. These tutors are essentially employees of the Department of Education but their current PRSI status puts them at a serious disadvantage because of their lack of eligibility for pensionable PRSI contributions. I ask the Minister to give serious consideration to this proposal. This issue is quite serious because those who are prov…

It does not resolve the issue. The Department is paying for this service. I know it is not regarded as the employer on paper but in real terms it is. This is the same debate that has gone on in respect of many organisations in recent months, in that people who are deemed to be self-employed under contracts are, in fact, technically employees. It is time this issue was resolved. The Minister of State talked about numbers. My understanding is that there are up to 500 people in Cork alone providing this service. I am …

I want to raise the issue of the penalty interest rate which is going to be imposed on solicitors’ practices in regard to client accounts. As the Taoiseach is aware, solicitors protect the moneys from house purchases and of people who are selling their houses. Now, however, under the new proposal from the banks, AIB's intends to charge 0.5% on client current accounts where they exceed a certain amount and, likewise, Bank of Ireland intends to impose a penalty charge of 0.65%. This relates to current accounts and it…

My question is in relation to the status of the national remote work strategy, the details of the implementation of the strategy and the progress being made to ensure that remote working will be a viable option post-Covid-19.

I raise the issue of remote working. We now have a problem where we have new housing estates being built where we do not have connection to broadband for anything up to 12 months after estates are completed, and in some cases up to two to three years. If we are talking about remote working then surely when building estates we should be looking to have broadband connected at the same time as houses are completed. For instance, one will not get a broadband connection until there is a postal code and there is a gap of…

The issue raises the assignment of the postal code. Why does it take so much time to have a postal code assigned? Broadband will not be connected until there is a postal code assigned and the postal code is not assigned until the person physically moves into the house. Postal codes should be assigned before houses are completed. It is a simple matter to do. Once someone has signed a contract and the houses are substantially constructed, postal codes should be assigned.