It was reported in The Irish Times yesterday that Dr. Catherine Day believes the Government's commitment to end direct provision by 2024 will not be met due to the pressures on emergency accommodation arising out of the war in Ukraine. It was also her view that the targets set out in the Housing for All plan need to be significantly increased to take into account the increase in population. The expert group headed up by Dr. Day has submitted a report to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, recommending that the State bui…

Last Friday marked International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the beginning of this year's 16 days of activism. The campaign continues the theme of ending femicide. As the programme for Government acknowledges, there is an epidemic of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. One of the programme's tools to tackle that epidemic is a commitment to legislate for the introduction of domestic homicide reviews. When will that happen? The Taoiseach will understand from his engagements on the th…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important topic. I also welcome these statements. I acknowledge the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications for his work as EU ministerial representative at the loss and damage talks in Egypt. I thank the Irish officials whose work goes unseen but which was crucial to establishing a loss and damage fund. Responding to the announcement of the fund, the climate change Minister of Pakistan, Ms Sherry Rehman, highlighted that the fund is not about some countri…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — there are 11 toll roads in operation across the State, 10 of which are on the national roads network with two of these being in full public ownership; — eight roads across the State are tolled under Public Private Partnerships (PPP); and — the Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the National Roads Programme; acknowledges that: — tolls on seven PPP roads and the M50 were increased at the start of 2022; — the announcement fro…

I thank all Members who contributed to the debate. It was important and timely and we saw some response from the Government on this issue. That response is late, however, and it does not go far enough. The Government knew as far back as early September that these proposed hikes were to come in in January. That is the time when a Minister for Transport who was in tune with the needs and lived experience of small business owners, of people driving vans trying to make ends meet, of commuters who get up early in the mo…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for selecting this matter for Topical Issue debate. I thank the Minister of State with responsibility for transport for taking it. I raised this issue briefly with the Minister of State during Priority Questions a couple of weeks ago. There is a significant backlog with the national car test, NCT, and there is a shortage of mechanics and inspectors. I want to raise the types of changes in work and testing practices that are being proposed and implemented in response. I have previou…

I will pick up on two points in my supplementary statement. The Minister of State said, "The RSA has assured my Department that the high testing standard we expect from the National Car Testing Service, NCTS, will not be compromised in any way as it works to increase testing capacity." To ask the straight question, how has that been assessed? The RSA provided the assurance. I await a response from it and I expect it will give me the same assurance but, for me, that raises a further question; how has it been assesse…

I welcome the motion and I thank the Independent Group. It chimes very well with the demands regarding the environment and climate and the needs of communities to deliver sustainable transport with a particular focus on public and active travel. There is growing recognition that we need system change rather than to push on individual behaviours. We need a scale of change that we have not seen previously. This requires the institutions of the State and its agencies to get their houses in order and have the focus and…

What is the Government doing in response to the shortage of primary school teachers in particular? The Irish Primary Principals' Network, IPPN, said we are at crisis point and pointed to acute shortages in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Kildare. I speak on behalf of my own constituency in Meath where I know the situation is exactly the same. Many issues are raised such as the cost of rents and pay inequality. I know there have been some responses with regard to student teachers and there are the sub-seeker and teaching t…

I welcome the opportunity to address this matter. The issue of electricity and energy affordability is central at this time. The motion points to the need to reform a broken market. That needs to happen, but we also need to address the cost of electricity and maximise State and community ownership of our national resources. That is not stated in the motion, but it should be. The market is broken, and the Government has stood steadfast against reforms for far too long. Colleagues of mine here and at European level h…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on statements on Science Week. I welcome the fact we are having this debate and that we have Science Week. It is a good opportunity for the House to address these issues that do not always get the focus they deserve. Of course, they are hugely important to our country and its future. The theme this year was to explore the infinite possibilities of science to address social challenges and to help to understand our world. There are a couple of important points. This is about the ide…

I ask the Minister of State to set out the steps she is taking to reduce the long waiting times for national car test, NCT, appointments. Has the private company operating the NCT service faced any sanction under its contract due to these long delays? Are the staff who have been temporarily transferred from Spain qualified to the same standard as their Irish counterparts?

There are two elements of this for me, the first of which is the inordinate delays. In the first instance, I am not entirely convinced. There is a job of work to notify people about the priority waiting list and the mechanism they should use. I try to find people an appointment in my area, but they will wait until 3 May next year in Kells, 18 May in Navan and 7 June in Drogheda. At Northpoint 1 and 2, they will wait until 7 June or 31 May. Therefore, six-month waits are not unheard of. This is my first question by …

The next area I want to focus on is standards, which the Minister of State touched on in her initial reply. I would appreciate if she could expand on it here. I am hearing from unions - SIPTU, in particular, has been in contact with me - and workers that there is a real concern that in the rush to address the backlog, standards are being driven down and new recruits or internal transfers within the company are not qualified to the same standard. Traditionally, it has been the case that the inspectors would be quali…

I ask the Minister of State to set out when the port capacity review will be published. When will the full review of the national ports policy be commenced? What level of Exchequer and non-Exchequer funding is planned for investment in ports at Rosslare, Cork and Shannon-Foynes, in particular, to fund the development works needed to facilitate the construction and installation of offshore wind farms at these ports?

I would be concerned if the expectation is that port infrastructure would be delivered as part of the ORESS because it is almost the wrong way around. To capture the full potential of the opportunity of offshore wind and to deliver it within the best possible timeframe the investment in our ports needs to happen now, not in conjunction with the development of our offshore wind farms. It is almost putting it back on offshore wind farm developers to do this. We know the sector has prepared reports into the infrastruc…

I am concerned with this response because we know our ports have applied for TEN-T funding. As the Minister of State has said, it is competitive. They have applied and they have been unsuccessful. We know that time is ticking and that we have a huge infrastructural deficit in our ports, which is within the responsibility of the Department, albeit we know they are commercial operations. There needs to be a mindset shift and the Department, the Minister of State and the Minister need to look at every option. The nati…

What measures is the Minister taking to support the delivery of the RSA road safety strategy? I ask him to outline a timeline for associated enabling legislation.

These are serious issues. We have a strategy and the Minister of State outlined the activity relating to it, the various groups and enablers involved. When it comes down to it, we are going in the wrong direction. We know that to be the case. Instead of decreasing, the number of accidents and near-misses is increasing. Most regrettably, the number of fatalities and serious injuries is increasing. We are told time and again that the biggest deterrent is, understandably, the fear of being caught. Over a two-year peri…

The road safety strategy calls for the maintenance of dedicated roads policing and a report on that capacity annually. That analysis could be done more frequently. There needs to be a focus on this issue and policing makes a serious difference, as we know. This is something we can and should do. There are a number of other measures to consider. We have seen an increasing number of people caught with poly drug use. There is a need for enabling legislation to allow for sanctions in that regard. Is that something the …