The Minister of State said there would be recruitment next year. When next year will that be? Will it be in January, February, March or December? What does he envisage will be the strength of the Garda Reserve over time? What is the target in that regard?

I commend the Minister and the Minister of State for working on the youth justice strategy. It is a slow burner but there are real benefits in it. Has the Minister given consideration to expanding the community alert service across the country? There was a time when there were joint policing committees, JPCs, in every municipal district. That is not the case now. They are only at county level, which brings them away from the local aspect. I asked the Minister to have another look at the earlier question about the G…

I was asking about expanding the community alert service and changing the JPCs to municipal district level.

I agree with everything Deputies Smith and Ó Murchú have said with regard to sanctions, resources and dealing with the people who are making a lot of money out of this. Has the Minister or the Minister of State looked at the Portuguese model of dissuasion, which is at the other end of the spectrum? That seems to have produced major work so far. I visited Portugal a number of years ago when I was a member of the justice committee and I was highly impressed. I ask the Minister to revisit that novel approach.

What are the Government's plans, if any, for the further development and expansion of local training initiatives, and will the Minister of State make a statement on the matter, which I have raised in the House previously? I look forward to his reply.

Does the Minister of State agree that it is fantastic that people coming from, as he described them, "economically, socially, geographically and educationally disadvantaged" areas can benefit from these LTIs and that more than 2,000 people are benefiting? Will he confirm whether there are people on waiting lists because the LTIs cannot meet the level of need? Does he agree that the people who are providing these courses are skilled, and have to be in order to be successful, but that they are at a disadvantage becau…

It is fantastic that people can go through these courses, end up in employment or further education and training, and reach their potential. However, does the Minister of State not agree that, if the people instructing on these courses do not have certainty regarding their own career pathways, they will move on and their skill sets will be lost, as will their passion for helping what are mainly young people to get on the pathway to work? Will the Minister of State commit to examining the issue of the trainers not h…

This question has to do with the fantastic development of technological universities. It is an innovative and far-seeing initiative from the Government. What plans has the Minister for the further development of technological universities?

I thank the Minister for that response. Would he agree with me that there is a different energy and focus in respect of the technological universities versus the traditional universities? I am not saying there is not also a focus and energy in those institutions because there is. There is, however, a differentiation in this regard between the two types of institution. Will the Minister outline what this differentiation is? Is he working to ensure it persists? In other words, is he working to ensure we will not have…

Many other countries were ahead of us in developing technological universities. The Minister has now caught us up in this regard, which is fantastic. Will the Minister tell me whether links are being developed between our technological universities and similar research institutions abroad in order that they can learn from best practice, learn from each other and build on the work they are doing? Taking the really exciting example of blockchain technology, are developments in this area being explored in the technolo…

This topic has been discussed over many years. The former Deputy Tommy Broughan, the late Senator Feargal Quinn and I and, most recently, Senator Tim Lombard have raised this issue in these Houses. Numerous reports have been carried out here and abroad on this. The fact of the matter is that approximately 12 days from now, winter will have arrived. The clocks will go back one hour and we will have dark evenings. One week from now, sunset will be at 6.20 p.m. and two weeks from now, it will be dark just after 5 p.m.…

I thank the Minister of State for letting us know he lives on the bright side of Ireland. Long may he continue to enjoy that. I agree with him that the main stumbling block is having two time zones on the island of Ireland. A number of years ago there was a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons proposing to maintain summertime all year round. It ran out of time but there was much support for it. If time had not run out on it, we might not be discussing this today. It was very close. I believe the Prime Mini…

This scheme is good for the community and for the participants. I agree with the Minister of State that we would all like to see more money being made available for the participants. I have two questions for him. Has any consideration been given to facilitating those who are at pension age also carrying on with the scheme? Many people over 66 years would like to and are able to but cannot. Is extra emphasis being put on encouraging people with refugee status to get on the courses? Due to the great work the Governme…

The Minister did well on the budget. What she did will make a huge difference to many people. I have two points. First, is the Minister doing anything to ensure that people know what they are entitled to with the changes that have come in? Some of the changes are quite complicated, people may have to apply and may not know that. Are there information leaflets being given out to people or whatever? Second, it strikes me that many people will be getting a lot of cash. Will the Minister ensure that people will be made…

This question has to do with Myanmar and the awful situation there. It gives the Minister an opportunity to inform the House of what he and the Government are doing and what is happening at UN level.

I thank the Minister for his response and acknowledge the work he and his officials are doing at EU and UN level. Much has been done. Reading the reports from Myanmar is horrifying, as the Minister has alluded to. He mentioned the Rohingya. Will he comment on the plight of those people? I have met some of them here. They are gentle people. I think there are 1 million of them in Bangladesh at the moment in a precarious situation as well. The Minister mentioned sexual abuse, torture, execution, the death penalty and …

Does the Minister agree with Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, that what is happening to the Rohingya people is actually genocide? Will the Minister comment on the calls for a global arms embargo? Has he had any contact with states that may be supporting the military there to try to stop them from offering that support and from keeping this junta in place? Are there any Irish citizens in that country? What is their situation? Could they be at risk?

I am sure we have all been contacted by many small businesses that are under considerable pressure because of rising energy costs. Could the Taoiseach tell me when these businesses will get the very welcome support that was promised in the budget? If the businesses are still under pressure following that, will there be a further avenue of support? Is this being planned?

The Taoiseach will probably have passed the old engine site near Midleton on his visit to the town recently. There are 56 ha of highly serviced land lying idle for the past 12 years. It cannot be used because the road outside needs a major upgrade, which was planned but has been stalled. Thousands of houses were also planned for the area and the road is quite dangerous. Will the Government revisit this issue to see if the upgrading of this project can be restarted?

I am substituting for Deputy Colm Burke.