I think we can all agree that the final confirmation about the university is good news and will lead to opportunities for sustainable growth in the area. It will develop enterprise in the local area in combination with our education system. Delivering balanced regional recovery is identified as a priority within the Government's national economic recovery plan. As part of Enterprise Ireland's regional strategy, Powering the Regions, Enterprise Ireland has committed to building on the south east's regional strengths…

I am familiar with HaloCare and what it does. It complements what we are trying to do, which is to develop and fund businesses and organisations that can create jobs and, more importantly, can have an impact on society both within the country and beyond. The Government is committed to keeping people living in their homes for as long as they possibly can. We developed a scheme across a number of Departments to provide supports to enable that and to provide other suitable accommodation when the need arises if they ca…

I do not have a date for when it will be operational but I am glad it is nearly ready. The answer to that would be as soon as possible. As the Deputy knows, considerable work has gone into that over the years. Earlier, I outlined the work of Enterprise Ireland, which complements the work of IDA Ireland, the local enterprise offices, LEOs, the local authorities and other stakeholders in creating jobs in Carlow. Carlow has done well in the creation of jobs, working with the local business community. That is on the ba…

I thank Deputy Flaherty for raising this matter. We focused on the IDA Ireland element in an earlier question. The Department and its agencies provide assistance to businesses in all regions of Ireland, including County Longford, to help them prepare for the challenges and opportunities of the future economy. The Department's core budget increased by €103 million, or 13.2%, in budget 2022. This will significantly assist us in helping businesses rebuild and grow after the pandemic and deal with the impact of Brexit …

I agree with Deputy Flaherty that Longford has great opportunities open to it and our development agencies are working very hard in the county. The Deputy makes a strong case for Longford, as does the Minister of State in the Department, Deputy Robert Troy, on a daily basis, the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Peter Burke, and Senator Micheál Carrigy. When all of us focus our minds, Longford can do extremely well. It is not just a matter for our Department. We a…

Building on the Tánaiste's comments, this budget is very much focused on a jobs-led recovery. We have been in this place before, when we had to turn to the business community to work with the State to create jobs for those who have no work and to drive the economy. We want to see a well-functioning economy delivering the resources and money we need to restore the public services to the level they should be at and enabling us to build on that. An overall budget package of an increase of €4.7 billion in expenditure, …

The Deputy knows it is Covid related, with delays on sites. I just point out that in case I am missing the point.

I do, but there were still delays in many of them.

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. It has come up a lot at meetings of the SME task force set up by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, last year and it also comes up during our visits to various local authorities, LEOs and development agencies, both voluntary and community, around the country. As the Senator mentioned, we spent a day in Limerick recently, which was beneficial in getting feedback from businesses and from all of those involved in suppor…

I again thank the Senator for raising this, as I know it is dear to her heart. She has a background in business, and she works with businesses. I could see their work in Limerick as well. I would like to mention the SME task force, which will be in line with the Senator’s thinking. It was set by the Tánaiste last September. For two months, we met and engaged with more than 40 entrepreneurs and beyond that to focus in on all the issues they want addressed. Similarly, the growth plan that we published last January on…

I welcome the debate and the discussion. It is important. This is a topical issue for everybody and it affects the lives of most of the people we represent. I thank colleagues on all sides for their contributions. I give apologies for the absence of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who would have liked to have been a part of this debate. He is in Luxembourg at a meeting of the Environment Council until tonight or tomorrow and was, therefore, unable to make it. He would like to have been a part of the debate. I will…

Within this overall competitive framework, the best long-term policy is, in our view, to support households with their energy costs through energy efficiency measures, with the Government providing a total retrofit budget in excess of €280 million for this year. There are long-term commitments in the national plan, setting out where we hope to go in the years ahead. We will continue with the development of renewable electricity to enable Ireland to reach EU renewable energy targets and our own national energy and c…

We are ramping it up.

A lot of them will be completed. It is not true to say-----

I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising this issue, which is something we have discussed quite a lot in recent weeks, mainly in this House. It has been raised with me quite regularly by the business community and the representative bodies we engage with in the various sectors. We have spent a great deal of time over the last couple of months engaging with various sectors and businesses that have highlighted this shortage of staff as a major issue and which are finding it very difficult to access the skilled staff th…

I thank the Senator again for raising the issue. I totally understand the difficulties that are out there because I have engaged with the sectors quite a lot. When I said we were prioritising medical staff I meant to point out that we prioritised permits for chefs as well because we understood that the sector was under an awful lot of pressure and that it was an essential service providing food during the Covid emergency. We tried to fast-track and expedite permits for chefs wherever we could. Likewise, other secto…

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. I am glad I have been able to make it to the House because it is an important topic. We were caught in traffic in Drogheda but we made it in time. It is good to be here. We had a discussion on this last week as well. It is certainly a very relevant issue that has been raised by many colleagues across the board. I have engaged with the various sectors and businesses over the summer and the availability of talent and skills is an issue that has come up quite a lot in the la…

I thank the Senator. He is right that we are trying to deal with this early. That is why, twice a year, we have this review, which is under way at this time. Usually, decisions would be made in November but we will try to get them made in October this year so we can give some clear indications. Part of this is to gather the evidence and to prove we can source this labour locally. As the Senator will appreciate, it is very difficult to explain that we need to issue permits when there are over 100,000 people on the p…

To clarify, I certainly was not saying that everybody on the PUP could drive a bus or a lorry. What I meant was that, in general, there are a lot of vacancies across many sectors and we have to work with those who are currently unemployed to try to help them into those jobs. The long-term solution with regard to logistics and lorry drivers and bus drivers is training and qualifications. Efforts were made a couple of years ago to try to make that happen and, for different reasons, it does not seem to have delivered …

It is good to be back in this House and see everybody back in their home. I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this important matter, which has been topical over the past couple of months. The matters raised today are directly important for Monaghan and its mushroom and poultry sector. Agribusiness is extremely important for Monaghan, as it is for my county of Meath. The matters raised here have been brought to me directly by the industry as well, along with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, earlier in the year. The…