Does the Minister of State know when these particular postal areas were put in place? I have seen various dates like 1917, and so on, being mentioned. If the Minister of State looks at any map, he can see that in many instances these areas are arbitrary and unwieldy. There does not seem to be any rationale behind them. They cross county bounds. As an answer to the Minister of State's response, I could suggest that the whole country is an anomaly in this respect. I ask the Minister of State to encourage An Post to r…

The European Union patent court system came into force on 1 June and it has been ratified by 17 countries but we are not one of them. This is important for Irish business, inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers and others in the country generally. When will we publish legislation so that we can hold a referendum to ratify this European patent court and join the court itself? Has the Government any idea of when the referendum might be held?

The State is spending tens of millions of euro in my constituency building state-of-the-art schools, both primary and secondary, which is greatly welcomed by everybody. Next September, however, in spite of that, there is a cohort of young second-level students going into first year who have no place. I have raised this on a number of occasions. Will the Tánaiste contact the Department of Education to see what progress has been made with respect to ensuring a place for these children in September? He can appreciate …

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this topic and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, for being present to respond. This topic arises as a result of a family approaching me. I am sure colleagues have had similar cases where the principal earner is over the limit and cannot get a mortgage because of age, and where the income in the household is above €53,000. I welcome the tenant in situ scheme. It is a very good scheme and I have directed quite a number of constituents towards it and i…

I thank the Minister of State for outlining what is being done and what the plans are. The Government is certainly moving on this very critical issue of housing, as I can see in my area, where a lot of new starts are occurring and people are being offered houses, which was not the case previously. I thank him also for promising to revert to me with respect to the critical issue I raised. I asked a parliamentary question on this and the response stated, "If household incomes are above the limit to be eligible for th…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this topic and the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, for responding. I am disappointed the Minister will not be here. I understand she is busy. This issue arises because in the last while, my colleagues and I have received phone calls from worried parents whose prospective first-year students have no place in September. The schools in east Cork are all full, with waiting lists. I raised this a number of times and received a resp…

I thank the Minister of State for his very positive response and the Department officials who prepared the response for him. I note, in particular, that he said that officials from his Department will be addressing the issue with each of the patrons this week with a view to finding a workable solution to ensure that no students will be without a place for September 2023. I warmly welcome that commitment but the only problem is that I understand that the schools are on holidays at the moment and are closed. I just h…

I was recently contacted by a woman who is suffering awfully from Lyme disease. At this time of year, there are far more ticks and so on in the woods. She wants to know if the Government will work to increase awareness of ticks, bites from ticks and so on, what to do if it happens and how to prevent it. Tick Talk Ireland has done great work in that regard and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, has also done some work. This disease can be very dangerous.

I ask the Minister in respect of a niche area, namely, intra-company transfers, how many applications have been made in the recent past, how many were successful, and if he would consider allowing the spouses of people who use this facility to work here also, as people can do with the critical skills visa?

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The numbers are higher than I thought they might be, according to those the Minister of State has given. Will the change the Minister of State proposes, or which I hope he will propose, to allow spouses to work require primary legislation or can it be done via a statutory instrument? Is the Minister of State aware that in recent days, Canada launched a tech talent strategy and a digital nomad strategy specifically designed to attract people of high talent to Canada? T…

As the Minister of State acknowledged, I have been raising this issue for some time. Is he in a position to put some kind of timescale on when he will make a decision and address the issue he has just outlined, whereby not being able to work because your partner or spouse has come here under intra-company transfer is detrimental to a partner, spouse or family member? In many instances, people refuse to come here if that is the case. Will the Minister of State give a commitment to address this soon? I have been rais…

I support my colleague, Deputy O'Connor, on his points. East Cork is a rapidly growing area. I have spoken with the Minister about the issue of about 40 students who do not have second level school places in Midleton. I know there are some in Fermoy as well. The schools have now closed and they have no place in September. I have written to the Minister about this and I am not sure what the answer is. I have also been tabling parliamentary questions over recent months. It has now reached a situation where we have pa…

I have one brief question for the Minister. What do we say to the 40 young children who do not have secondary school places for September or August? What message can we give them? They have tried everything. The schools have waiting lists. They are all full. What can be done?

Professor Gregory O’Hare from Trinity College recently told the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment that ChatGPT was the fastest-growing technology in history; it was disruptive, it would replace a quarter of our work-related tasks and its speed was fast exceeding the rate at which law could be framed, including the EU's artificial intelligence, AI, Act. Other countries have forums, task forces and strategies. Has the Government plans to establish anything like that in Ireland, perhaps even an Oirea…

The question arises from a report that the Department of Transport has a major underspend so far this year. Will the Minister comment on this? Is this the case? If there will be an underspend at the year's end, is the money to be handed back to his Department? Was there an underspend last year?

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive response. What was the situation last year? Was there an underspend last year? If so, what was it and what happened to that funding? Was it handed back to his Department or what happens in cases such as that? Is he concerned about roads projects that are advanced to a certain level, costing in some cases millions of euro, and then halted? If they are halted for quite a while, they might have to start again, including public consultation and so on. Is the Minister or his De…

I return to the questions I asked. Was there an underspend last year and, if so, how much was it and was any of that funding returned? Is the Minister concerned with projects that have cost in some cases millions of euro being abandoned, with the risk of that funding being lost or wasted?

The new tenant in situ scheme for private tenants at risk of homelessness, where the owner has to sell the house, takes into account the income of adult children who may have no choice but to live in the house. I understand the scheme is under review. Will the Government consider discounting the income of adult children who live in the house with their parents? They will not be the tenants eventually; it will be their parents.

According to the Defence Forces website there are currently 15 competitions open for vacancies in the Defence Forces. More than half of those are in the Naval Service. Will the Tánaiste tell the House the level of interest in these 15 competitions? How many people have applied, how many people does he expect to be recruited into the various areas, and when does he expect the Defence Forces Reserve to open up for recruitment?

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. He said that 150 were inducted. Will he provide a breakdown of how many are in the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps? Over what timescale was the recruitment campaign that led to the induction of those 150 taken place? Does he have any targets in respect of the various other competitions? He can send those to me if he does not have them now. I also asked about the Reserve. Are there any plans to start recruitment there as it is a branch of the Defence Forces? Finally, has the …