I thank the Minister of State for the very positive and comprehensive response. Will the Minister of State give us any indication as to what type of apprenticeships are most popular among the people he mentioned? What are the Minister of State's targets for the years ahead 2025 and 2026 for the number of young Traveller people who would graduate and become apprentices?

Will the Minister of State give me any indication as to the gender breakdown of these apprenticeships? How many girls and how many boys are involved in this? Will the Minister of State also give an indication of the types of apprenticeships that are most popular such as carpentry or mechanics? Is the Minister of State aware of the Castlerea Prison Jonathan Irwin project where young Travellers in the prison can train in skills, and horse husbandry in particular? Does the Minister of State have any connection with th…

This question is similar to the previous one. It has to do with the way in which the Department is supporting people from disadvantaged backgrounds, possibly including people with disabilities, to become apprentices.

What level of staffing, particularly in the Department, has the Minister of State put in place to encourage and support people from disadvantaged backgrounds to become apprentices?

Will the Minister outline her plans to integrate the immigration permissions and employment permits systems? How advanced is that work and when will we see a decision and action on it?

I thank the Minister. I urge her to move that along as quickly as possible, given it has been ongoing for some time. On the issue of employment permits, we are an outlier in the European Union and, indeed, in much of the OECD world in that there is no direct access for dependants of those with intra-company transfer employment permits. We are the only ones who do not give that access. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, tells me the Department of Justice has responsibility for the granting of immigration permis…

I welcome the Minister's commitment to this. The Department of enterprise is on the same playing field as her on this, so it is a matter of the two Departments getting together and making it happen. The Minister might write to me setting out what is required to make it happen. The spouses and partners of those with critical skills visas can work automatically. There is no issue there. It may take no more than the stroke of a pen to allow also the spouses and partners of people who come here under intra-company tran…

It has been four months almost to the day since Storm Babet devastated my part of the country. The Taoiseach and Ministers visited and offered huge support, which was very welcome. What we did not see at the time was the devastation caused to roads. There was approximately €60 million worth of damage. I am told that the Department of Transport can only give €13 million at the moment. Some roads are almost impassable. Will the Taoiseach work with his Cabinet colleagues to increase the amount of money from the Excheq…

It has been four months since Storm Babet hit the country, particularly my home area in east Cork, with the devastation that followed. I understand Cork County Council has requested assistance to repair roads. I think a bill of around €60 million has been mentioned. What is the Government’s response to that? How much has been made available to date and when will we see financing to enable this vital infrastructure to be put back in place?

I support what Deputy Durkan said about local authority staff. I recently met a restaurateur who had a turnover of €100,000 over the Christmas period but only made €1,000 profit despite working very hard and running a very efficient business. What is the Minister's view on returning to the 9% VAT rate for restaurants and the hospitality sector?

VAT is the one thing that could make a massive difference for smaller restaurants and for the food sector generally. That is the feedback I am getting. I ask the Minister to work hard to see if that can be split, as he suggested earlier.

It is almost four months to the day since Storm Babet hit Ireland and caused particular devastation in my part of the country, as the Minister well knows. I thank him and his colleagues for visiting and for the support given morally and financially since then. The scheme established by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for businesses, operated through the Red Cross, has been very successful. I wish to give the Minister an opportunity to tell us how much has been expended on that scheme, how many ap…

I thank the Minister for his response. Has consideration been given to setting up an appeals mechanism? In other words, a mechanism whereby a second look can be given to those who were not successful the first time round, for whatever reason. As far as I am aware, most schemes have an in-built appeals mechanism whereby an independent person reviews the application to see if there is something that could be looked at in the event of an appeal. I am not aware of one in this particular case. Perhaps the Minister could…

We could also argue that had the long-delayed flood management been in place when it should have, we would not be having this conversation. I ask the Minister to work hard to try to support his colleagues to get that up and running. The issue is that this was exceptional, unexpected and devastating. Many businesses were insured. In the normal course of events, the insurance cover they had would have sufficed but because this was so out of the ordinary, they were caught out badly. Some had a lot of Christmas stock i…

As the Minister of State is aware, this is an issue I have brought up on a number of occasions, both at committee meetings and here last week during debate on the Employment Permits Bill 2022. It has to do with intra-company transfers and the possibility of the spouses and partners of people who come here working as well. That is possible for the spouses and partners of people who come here through the critical skills permit system. Their spouses and partners can work but that is not the case here. Does the Ministe…

I thank the Minister of State for that. I am aware of some incidences where people refused to come here, despite being badly needed, because their spouses or partners would have been sitting at home all day twiddling their thumbs when they could have also contributed to the economy by working. There is a negative double-whammy there. I welcome the Minister of State's response that his Department is actively in favour of the proposal. It should be quite simple. If somebody has an intra-company transfer work permit, …

With the Employment Permits Bill last week, there was an opportunity to make a legislative change as regards this issue. I understand that Bill is now heading for the Seanad. Would the Minister of State consider bringing forward an amendment in the Seanad to allow this to happen?

I offer my sympathy to Finola and the family, and to Richard and Mary. I served with John from 1997 until he retired. I admired him greatly. He was a giant, as people have mentioned. He strode these corridors with purpose and conviction. In particular, he was very anti-violence and anti-war. Of late he was concerned about what is happening in Ukraine and around the world. We are all concerned about that but he wrote about it and I know he felt about it. As colleagues have said, he was very much in touch with people…

I want to take this opportunity to thank the Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach and other Ministers who showed massive support for my part of the country during the floods last October and for the assistance for businesses and households. The flood relief scheme needs to be expedited. What I want to bring up today is the need for the county council to be funded. A total of €60 million worth of damage was done to roads and we need funding to be released fairly soon from the Exchequer to fix these road…

I wish to refer to an issue that was raised at the start of the debate with respect to intra-company transfers. Is it in order to respond to those comments at this time?