The Deputy raised two important issues. The first is the reform of the overall system. In recent years, especially in working closely with the Tánaiste and the Department over the past year, we put extra resources and staffing into that area. The number of staff available to work through the backlog in permits has nearly trebled. Thankfully, the processing time has been reduced. We had been seeing timelines of nearly 20 weeks, and more in some cases. In most cases now, though, the waiting time is back down to four …

In response to Deputy Carey, first of all, the permit regime change we made for the healthcare assistants is of major assistance to nursing homes and we work closely with them around that. Close to 2,000 permits have been issued. We have streamlined our process and we focus in, whether it be on home-care assistants or chefs, at different times of the year when there is a high priority. I think we have managed to do that, but the simple question the Deputy asked was on whether we can align that better with the Depar…

I thank Deputy O'Reilly for raising this issue. It is important to ensure that workers are correctly classified in a way that matches the reality of the relationship between the worker and the business. Therefore, we take very seriously any bogus employment. The Tánaiste is very clear on that and has set up a working group on the matter. In Ireland, mechanisms exist for the determination of the employment status of individuals or groups. Where an issue arises in respect of the employment status of an individual, ca…

-----but we are absolutely clear that, regardless of whether public money is involved or not, the rules of the State must be followed.

I have no doubt but that the Deputy is well plugged into that group. It is representative of all parts of society. It is important we continue to focus on the area to see if we can enhance and strengthen our legislation and our regime. Part of the work of that group over recent months has been to assess the situation at the moment and the numbers that we believe are in this sector and to see if Revenue and the Department of Social Protection have the right staff and the extra staff they need to be able to deal with…

To be very clear, the State does not facilitate it. The State expects anybody who is in employment to have the full protection of our employment legislation, and we are very clear on that. There are two agencies, Revenue and the Department of Social Protection, that do a well-recognised good job in this area. Our regime in Ireland is well recognised for protection of employees. It is something we are very proud of and put the resources into, and we will strengthen that. We have also extended a lot of the benefits t…

I am glad to inform the House that following the completion of the recruitment process, IDA Ireland appointed Brian McGee as the new south-east regional manager in July 2022. This appointment will enable IDA Ireland to promote regional development in the south east, which is at the centre of IDA Ireland's 2021 to 2024 strategy, Driving Recovery and Sustainable Growth. IDA Ireland will seek to deliver half of all investments from 2021 to 2024 to regional locations. IDA Ireland is committed to the pursuit of more bal…

Yes, Brian McGee was appointed in July.

I hope he is at his desk working because he was appointed in July.

I will absolutely make sure that Carlow is not forgotten. We could not possibly forget it with the Deputy here. As the Deputy knows, in IDA Ireland's strategy there is a target to complete an advanced building solution in Carlow in 2022. It could end up being early in 2023 but it is a commitment and it will happen. There is also a commitment to bring additional investment to the south-east region. There are clear targets. Construction of the third advanced building solution in Waterford will also benefit Carlow as …

As amendments Nos. 1 and 2 are grouped, I will speak to both amendments. Amendment No. 1 makes a minor but useful change to the Minister’s power to set the number of sick leave days by order. As originally formulated, it would have required the Minister to specify the number of additional days to which employees will be entitled. The amendment means that an order can now simply specify the overall number of days of statutory sick leave. This reduces the risk of confusion. A single ministerial order will specify one…

On Report Stage in the Dáil, the Tánaiste accepted an amendment that removed the power of the Minister to reduce the number of statutory sick leave days by regulation. These are consequential, technical amendments made in the Seanad and they reflect the change in policy, in that the number of sick days can only be increased. This formed part of the debate in this House and the Seanad. Section 6(2)(b)(i), previously provided that the Minister could not reduce the number of sick leave days by more than three days at …

I thank Opposition Members and all the parties for their co-operation on all stages of the Bill in both Houses over the past 18 months. While there were different amendments and slight disagreements, generally we were all supportive of the Bill and how important it is for Ireland to have a statutory sick pay scheme. I thank Members for their help and support and the Tánaiste for his drive behind this and throughout the Department in making sure it was completed. I recognise that this has put a lot of pressure on th…

I thank the Acting Chairperson. As ever, it is great to be here. I thank Senator Carrigy for tabling this important matter for discussion today. I apologise on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, who is not here because she is at a Cabinet meeting. She asked me to take this matter on her behalf. I will certainly make sure she gets the message and also the figures and statistics the Senator presented. As Senator Carrigy will be aware, DEIS is the main policy instrument of the Department of Education to tackle educ…

I again thank Senator Carrigy for raising this issue. He is absolutely right to identify that it is important that we try to tackle absenteeism and focus our resources as much as we possibly can on those who are missing school days or in difficult situations. That said, it is fair to say that some areas of the whole programme need extra resource levels. The Senator made that point extremely well. I will certainly bring it back to the Minister and ask that she takes a county-by-county review of where this needs to b…

I thank Senator Keogan for the opportunity to have this conversation. I assure the Senator that I do not want to upend the Taoiseach, as he is a higher authority than I, but I will try to give the Senator as positive a reply as possible. It is important that we are discussing education when there are seven young students in the Visitors Gallery from County Meath. A lot of them like cycling bicycles to school even though they are all in primary school. It is great to have them here. We have a teacher from St. Patric…

Again, I thank Senator Keogan for raising the matter. It is important that we constantly review these figures and track the population. Having spent time as a Minister of State in the Department of Education, I understand the system it has. It is quite good at analysing the data and the figures, but sometimes it can miss some local information as well. It is important that we constantly have these debates to feed into that. The Senator mentioned the site being made available by the bishop. I thank Bishop Deenihan, …

At least some of them are from Cortown school as well because most of them are my family, so I better welcome them too.

All of them are - sons, daughters, nieces and nephews.

There are. The two at the end play with your family, Acting Chair.