It is a multiple-choice question.

Multiple choice, Minister. Is it €2,000 or €3,000?

The all-island strategic rail review is a positive step. We have to acknowledge that, but only if it leads to real delivery across the whole island and not just around Dublin. As Sinn Féin spokesperson for rural and community development, I have to say the current approach to transport planning is failing our regions. The national planning framework in inadequate. It continues to prioritise the capital while neglecting infrastructure for rural and regional communities. The review cannot become another glossy docume…

What we are witnessing in Palestine is the systemic destruction of a people, their land, homes and children and their very future. Israel has been emboldened by decades of impunity. It is armed by the United States, Germany and Britain. This is not confined to Gaza. In the West Bank, the expulsions, land theft and apartheid continue. In Gaza, Israel has turned an open-air prison into a graveyard of children and humanity. More than 80,000 people are dead. Starvation is being used as a weapon. Hospitals have been bom…

The report shows very clearly that the Government has lost control of special education and it is families and children who are paying the price. Instead of support, they are met with silence. Instead of certainty, they are met with delays. Parents in schools are being forced to fight for basic entitlements and children with additional needs are being left in limbo. In Waterford alone, seven schools have contacted my office in the past three months. One had funding approved and then refused with no explanation. Ano…

Earlier in the debate, the Minister of State acknowledged that the Government is not doing enough on housing, but the truth is that it has not been doing enough for decades, and from what we see it does not intend to start now. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael benchmark themselves against their previous failures. They routinely confuse announcements with delivery and think nothing of misleading the Irish people on housing. This week in Lismore, west Waterford, a planning application for a private development of 20 much-ne…

The people of Waterford are being failed by this Government when it comes to jobs and investment. In the past five years, Waterford has received just a third of the number of IDA visits to Galway, Cork and Limerick. Even counties like Westmeath and Clare are getting more attention than Waterford. This is shown in the figures. Last year, Waterford gained just two new IDA-supported jobs. Over the past two decades, Cork averaged nearly 1,400 jobs created a year through the IDA, Galway 600, Limerick 300 and Waterford j…

The trend is over 20 years.

Almost ten years ago the Taoiseach stood outside University Hospital Waterford with a billboard promising 24-7 cardiac care for Waterford and the south-east. Ten years on, the people of the south-east are still waiting. Cabinet approval was announced two months ago but since then there has been no detailed plan, timeline or staffing strategy. Announcements are cheap and it is delivery that matters. We have lost years waiting for that announcement and that go-ahead. Without urgent action, lives remain at risk in Wat…

While we are waiting for the Minister of State, Chair.

I share Deputy O'Reilly's concerns. Looking at the child poverty monitor, we see the failure of the 2020 roadmap for social inclusion, which included a target of reducing consistent poverty among adults and children from 5% to 2%. Five years later, we are still at 5%. The roadmap has been an abject failure. One of my concerns when it comes to child poverty and poverty within families is their lack of resilience to deal with emergencies and other issues that arise for them. I have in mind the inability, because of t…

On behalf of my colleague Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, I ask the Minister for Social Protection the current strategy for community employment, the number of sponsor groups, participants and supervisors, and whether any changes to the scheme are planned this year. Will he make a statement on the matter? This relates to community employment in the round, including CE schemes, Tús, RSS and others.

I welcome that and gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as an bhfreagra cuimsitheach sin. Is cinnte go bhfuil an-éileamh ar an scéim seo i measc na ngrúpaí pobail. Níl sé díreach mar gheall ar dhaoine a chur ar ais ag obair nó traenáil chuí a thabhairt dóibh. Tá sé chun tacú leis na pobail ina bhfuil siad ag maireachtáil agus ina gcónaí. Regarding the CE and Tús schemes, part of the issue is that there does not seem to be a great deal of joined-up thinking between the two. There is no easy avenue to go from one to the oth…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as sin. I welcome his commitment to keep these under review and to look at them in the round because there is a lot of crossover. With regard to the RSS, I would like to know the Minister's opinions on reform of that and the pilot scheme and moving it to the rural dwellers scheme or bringing more of that in. At present, as the Minister knows, you need either a fishing licence or a herd number to qualify for that scheme. It would be suitable to many more people living in rural Ireland w…

Hear, hear.

You are only learning that after 12 years.

Public transport is essential for rural communities. It connects young people to education and training, older people to services and workers to jobs. It keeps our rural towns and villages alive and links people to public services, which unfortunately have become ever more concentrated in urban areas at the expense of rural accessibility. Local Link provides an excellent service in County Waterford and across the State. I acknowledge the management, staff, bus companies and drivers who go above and beyond. However,…

If you did not waffle as much in the first four minutes.

The housing crisis is not just an urban crisis. It is also tearing out the very heart of rural Ireland. Young people are being priced out or locked out. They are being pushed into the larger towns or cities or, more often than not, they are being pushed abroad. GAA clubs and county boards are raising the alarm on this. Some are now appointing demographic officers to deal with rural youth depopulation. This week in my role as Sinn Féin spokesperson on rural affairs, I will be meeting with GAA president, Jarlath Burn…

Local authority CEOs are telling the Government that the affordable serviced sites scheme is not working.