I raise the situation of Ukrainian students who wish to access third level and, indeed, fourth level education since arriving here following the invasion of their country on 24 February. How many have taken up places and what procedures is the Department putting in place to facilitate them and to ease the transfer?

How many of the 250 contacts the Minister mentioned are likely to seek places? Is that information available? To broaden it out, can those who seek apprenticeships access that contact point? Will they be supported by the ETBs? Will the examination the Minister mentioned be the passageway to potentially beginning college in the next academic year for those Ukrainian equivalents of leaving certificate students who wish to go to college for the first time? What work has been done to facilitate that cohort of students …

The Minister recently made an announcement of substantial extra funding for third level education. He also committed to revamping the Student Universal Support Ireland grant scheme. I am interested in where we are with that and about its timeline. How will the extra funding he announced for third level address the problems that we have just discussed?

I thank the Minister. He has been in this House for long enough to know that money will not absolve people from taking responsibility. We are good at throwing money at things, but we need to make sure that we get outcomes. What is the timeline to reduce the teacher-student ratio or lecturer-student ratio? The student contribution is currently €3,000 per annum. The Minister committed that it would be gradually reduced. Will that happen in this year's budget? Is he seeking support for that process to begin in this ye…

Could we anticipate a reduction in the student contribution fee or an increase in SUSI in 2023? It is important that we expand the available SUSI grant support. I am with the Minister on the student contribution. It is a fee. "Student contribution" is a silly, insulting phrase. It is a fee and it excludes many people from education. The same people are hit all the time. They may be working and cannot get support for anything. When it comes to investing in the family's education or their own education, they are bloc…

I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. This is in respect of the targets of the national retrofitting scheme and comes back to some of the discussion around apprenticeships. There is a commitment to get an extra 2,600 places in the nearly zero energy building apprenticeship. What is the position with that target? Is the Minister confident it will be met?

The target of the national retrofitting scheme is 500,000 houses. It is an extraordinary target. It really needs a Marshall Plan effort to reach it given its complexity. We are nowhere near that. Is there a co-ordination point within the Department to ensure all the courses - the Minister of State mentioned a figure of 60 - are delivering the places we need? A commitment was made at the beginning of February, at the launch of the national retrofitting scheme, to have 2,650 extra places on the NZEB apprenticeship co…

I reiterate my call for a central point. Someone needs to take charge of this in the Department. The person should be co-ordinating all the activity to ensure somebody has the target in mind. I note the list of centres the Minister of State gave in his initial answer. There is no centre planned for the west coast. It is all about the midlands. In the west, we have houses that need retrofitting too, and people need to be able to access the centres without considerable expense. Could the Minister of State revert to m…

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on the funding secured and on the implementation plan relating to this report. The report is a credit to them, their advisers and the Department. Yesterday, I was struck by Deputy Whitmore's comment to the effect that the NPWS has moved around seven different locations. At least it now has a permanent home and can lay down roots. The original report should be required reading for everyone, not just in the context of the NPWS. …

I am taking No. 77.

It has all been done. We have got the confirmation back from-----

For the record of the House, I received an email at 11.30 this morning confirming it.

No problem. I wish to know the number of people who are looking for assistance with energy costs, including boiler repairs and replacements, either through the exceptional needs scheme or otherwise, to alleviate the major crisis that will affect households experiencing fuel poverty.

The Minister is aware the major shock through the increase in energy costs is only beginning to happen. By the time we get to next winter, this will be a major crisis and not just an issue for many people. I acknowledge the €200 to help with electricity bills and I acknowledge the extra €125 paid this week to 371,000 household in receipt of fuel allowance. The restrictions on fuel allowance mean many people who are in poverty do not get fuel allowance and need to use fixed incomes or low-wage incomes for these addi…

In my own name I have tabled a question about the availability of community welfare officers. I got some information last week that shows many people do not have access to a community welfare officer within their area. The service is being centralised. People do not have access to transport to get to the central service. It makes no sense to do what the banks are doing and tell people to go online because many people do not have the capacity to go online or do not have the availability to go online to engage with c…

I welcome the publication of the report. I agree with Deputy Howlin. I would like to see the initiation plan as soon as possible. This issue has dragged on for some time. I do not agree with the interpretation of Deputy Cairns as regards why it dragged on, but it is highly complex. The report that has been published deals with the complexity in detail, however, and I commend all those involved in it. We need to move quickly towards legislation, however, and resolving the various anomalies and challenges that were i…

I commend the Minister of State on bringing forward this Bill. It is one of the most significant overhauls of consumer rights legislation in some time and it is long overdue. What we are doing is embedding many rights but will we give information to people regarding their rights when they get involved in the system? I am sure everybody in this Chamber has signed up for some sort of service and pressed the "agree" button after about three or four pages of text. Who among us has read every single page of such text, w…

When one looks back on the decision by the Irish people 50 years ago in 1972 to join the then European Economic Community one must accept it was a big, brave and forward-looking decision by a country that was still in its infancy and that still had much to do to maximise the opportunity and the benefits of its independence. Only 50 years before that, the country had come through the War of Independence and the Civil War. It was still very much inward looking, yet it had this ambition, the ambition of people such as…

Fáilte Ireland published a survey of 1,000 businesses in February 2022, and identified that 30% face closure if the current recruitment crisis within hospitality is not resolved. I ask the Minister of State to outline the strategy to assist these businesses to bridge the skills gaps that they have, to support tourism as an employer, and to encourage people to take up careers in hospitality and tourism.

The Minister of State mentioned chefs. Some 88% of respondents to the survey referenced by the Minister of State said they had considerable difficulty in recruiting chefs. We must consider the fact that 42% of workers who were working in the tourism and hospitality sector pre-pandemic, and who received the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, as a consequence, did not return to the industry. There are 40,000 vacancies in the sector. We pride ourselves in being an Ireland of the welcomes. Tourism is a people-focused …