I want to raise with the Minister my concern that there is no structure in place between local authorities and Uisce Éireann. If an engineer in a local authority wants to make a representation about a connection, he or she is treated in the same way as a member of the public. I ask that the Departments would sit down with Irish Water and the local authorities to set up a proper structure. I know of one housing project belonging to a local authority that is now delayed six months because we cannot get the water and …

I thank the Minister of State and the Department for the work they are doing in this area. The numbers availing of school transport have increased to 172,000 this year from 149,000 in 2022-23. The number for people with special educational needs has gone from 18,000 to 21,500. It is not easy to increase services like that because, as a lot of speakers mentioned, there is demand for the vehicles and for the drivers. That is a challenge and how we deal with it into future is something we need to look at very carefull…

I thank the Minister for the work being done. Hopefully, we will see success in the pilot projects that have been started.

I have a letter in my hand from Dr. Derville O'Shea, consultant haematologist, in respect of a constituent of mine, Aishling Thornhill, who, unfortunately, has relapsed refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. It is a complicated condition. My understanding is that treatment would be available to her if she was under 25 but because she is over 25 it is not being made available. I understand some progress was made on it this morning. Could the issue be clarified? Where a consultant prescribes that the treatm…

As the Minister of State will be aware, the programme for Government sets out quite clearly that a task force will be set up to deal with the challenges that exist in Cork city centre. There is a need for major redevelopment and for an overall plan to deal with those challenges. In real terms, a lot of progress has been made in Cork city but we need to work through how we can grow and develop the city centre into the future. We have already set out proposals in respect of improving the transport system from Ballinc…

My concern is that it would be delayed further, given that we are already over 350 days in government. Even if we set up the task force in the morning, it would take 12 months to get the report and further time to set up an implementation mechanism. I am concerned about the timeframe in which this task force will be set up. It is also important that the task force is inclusive. I accept that Cork City Council is playing a very important part in the development and growth of the city in the work it is already doing.…

The Minister spoke of funding for Irish Water. More than 500 treatment plants throughout the country were built between 2002 and 2008. Many of the developers who built them have gone into liquidation or receivership. In one case in Whitechurch in Cork, raw sewage is flying out of the treatment plant into the stream. I have taken samples from it. I have been writing to Cork County Council, Uisce Éireann and the EPA for seven months. I was out there ten days ago and took samples from the stream that are totally conta…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, for all the work done on flood relief programmes. The problem I have with them is the time it takes from start to finish. One, the Glanmire flood relief project, is being done in my constituency at the moment. It is nearing completion and was very well managed by the OPW. I am concerned about the one in Blackpool, which started in 2013 and, 12 years later, the most recent part has been signed off by the OPW but not by the Department. We have been waiting for more than 12…

I thank the Minister and welcome the success of this scheme. I am concerned, however, about whether it will continue. On Monday last, I met with Barnardos in Knocknaheeny in Cork where a programme is based. As the Minister will know, Barnardos' total budget for the year is approximately €15 million. It gets €12 million through Tusla and there is a shortfall of approximately €3 million, which it is challenging. Barnardos does similar projects and explained it is meeting a number of people in relation to supporting c…

I thank the Minister. One of the issues I raised concerned Barnardos and the work it is doing. These are two separate programmes, but this is about co-ordination and working together. It is extremely important that this happens. The work the Department is doing means it has now acquired a great deal of expertise. It is the same with Barnardos and what it is doing. It also has a large amount of expertise. It is about pooling it and delivering a comprehensive service in areas and giving support. I must compliment the…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, for coming into the House at this late hour to deal with this issue. I very much appreciate it. As the Minister of State knows, this is an extremely important issue. It is to ask the Department of Health whether it intends to put in place a national nursing home care policy following on from the recent publication of the new ESRI report, which projects that we need to grow the number of both short-term and long-stay beds in nursing homes, and whether the Minister of …

Regarding home care, there is the whole issue of long-term planning. For instance, in 2022, there were 28.7 million hours for home care. The prediction is that by 2040, it will be somewhere between 44.9 million and 54.9 million hours. That is a huge change. One of the problems I have at the moment is the total lack of planning for short-stay beds. We are not producing enough of them and it is causing a huge problem in our hospitals. As we speak here tonight, 50% of all people who occupy hospital beds are over 65 ye…

The issue in relation to funding is about people living in disadvantaged communities, supporting people with disabilities and people with a criminal record who, as a result, have difficulty finding employment. I am concerned that there is a lack of structure for people discharged from our prisons in accommodation and in trying to get them back into the system. Will more work be done in that area? It needs to be done first when they are physically in prison, with co-ordination of their plan for when they get out. Ac…

It is interesting the Minister of State mentioned the Glen Resource Centre. I have been involved going back to 1996 when there was nothing at all there. We got funding from Europe to start the centre. There are now 80 organisations using the centre. It is a fantastic development with fantastic staff. All of the organisations there are working hard, providing a good service for the community. Coming back to the issue, as we come into the winter months, people will offend because they have nowhere to go. The whole id…

Page 112 of the programme for Government sets out quite clearly the implementation of the Dublin city task force report. It also refers to the need to set up a task force for Cork city. We are now 150 days on and I am wondering when it is proposed to set up this task force. I fully understand that a lot of work is being done by the city council, the business association, the chamber of commerce and UCC but it is about a coordinated approach and working to improve the city centre as well as areas around it like Blac…

I come from an area where I was involved in a youth project where young people would have dropped out of school. That is where the problems start arising. We worked very closely with the Garda where we had the young people on a training programme. The people we took in were over 15. It is important to note that in a lot of these cases there is no family support. This is what I am saying to the Minister of State about the youth diversion programme. When someone finishes with the programme, that family support may st…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The work being done by all those people involved in the youth diversion programme is fantastic. They work very hard, also liaising with the Garda. That is what I have found in my experience of working with the local gardaí as regards trying to help people who have dropped out of the education system. One of the problems you find with the youth diversion programme is that one of the reasons people end up in difficulty is as a result of falling out of the education system …

I thank the Deputy and very much welcome this debate. As my colleague, Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan, has set out, a major plan, the Cork metropolitan area plan, has been set out and was published on 18 June. Public consultation is currently taking place and it is important that people engage. We are not just planning for the next five or ten years but for the next 50 or 60 years. One of the things that will happen in Cork is a growth of population. The most recent census reported that Cork had a population of 581,000.…

Regarding forward planning, we need to address the concentration of development in Dublin and the greater Dublin area. We need to focus very much on places like Cork, Limerick and Galway. There is clear evidence that the growth in jobs continues in Cork. Therefore, we must develop the housing in order to accommodate those new jobs. I do not believe we are working hard enough to develop areas outside of Dublin regarding housing and the infrastructure required. In the last census, the population of Cork was 581,000. …

In fairness to the Irish College of General Practitioners, it has done a huge amount of work as regards having more GPs trained and putting in place a programme for people who have worked abroad and now want to work in Ireland. It has a two year programme whereas for the normal training, people would have to produce evidence of having worked abroad. One of the things we need to fast-track in a lot of areas, especially growing urban areas, is the provision of primary care centres so a whole range of services are ava…