I thank the Minister of State for his thoughtful response and his own personal commitment to work in this area. It is of great importance that it is moved forward as soon as possible. People are extraordinarily disappointed because they see themselves being disenfranchised if they cannot actually vote. People are paying their taxes and are working and raising their families here and just because they are away on holidays, or for whatever other reason as the Minister of State has alluded to, we should put these arra…

Will the Taoiseach outline the Government’s policy on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, between the EU and Canada? Does the Government intend to make changes to the Arbitration Act, as was suggested by the Supreme Court, and if so, is there a timescale for that?

How many registered childcare providers are not taking part in the core funding model? Is the trend going up or down? Have any registered childcare providers opted out of the core funding model? In general, how is the model progressing?

I thank the Minister for his response and congratulate him on the work he and his Department are doing on this important area. Has he or his Department carried out any audit of areas in the country to identify black spots where it is very hard for people to find childcare, crèches and so on, and if so, is that information available? One thing I came across when I was canvassing recently was the number of parents who are under an awful lot of pressure trying to find facilities, services and registered childcare prov…

I have two brief follow-up questions. Is it the case and can the Minister confirm that services which are not involved in the core funding model can charge what they like and that the Minister has no control over what they can charge? Has the Minister or his Department entered into any discussions with the Department of Education - the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte might be interested in this as well - with respect to the possibility of registered childcare providers getting involved in the July provision mode…

I wish to ask the Minister about the position regarding the funding of continuous glucose-monitoring sensors for people with type 2 diabetes. My reading of the situation is that this technology is amazing and makes a huge difference to the quality of people's lives. They feel better and can perform better. It is really effective. I understand that a change was made to the scheme last Christmas whereby people with type 2 diabetes who had been involved previously are not now. I would like the Minister's comments on t…

I thank the Minister for his response and congratulate him on the work he and the Government are doing in this area. I wonder what the cost will be of not making these sensors available to people, particularly if they get ill, end up in hospital or whatever and their quality of life disimproves. One of my constituents informed me that the sensor changed the quality of his life when he started using it. His readings were kept at a manageable level and he feels much better when going out and about. He also said that …

I thank the Minister for his very positive response. To support him in moving forward with this, my constituent tells me that the sensor has to be replaced every ten days at a cost of €92.50, or €75 plus VAT. This is, as the Minister stated, very expensive. However, the improvement in quality of life for these people is massive. They do not require hospital treatment to the same extent or anything near it, so there are huge savings there with respect to not having to be hospitalised, not being unwell and being able…

The purpose of this question is to ask the Minister how his Department ensures that persons signing the form relating to the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, solar photovoltaic, PV, panels are registered Safe Electric Ireland electricians, bearing in mind that more than half of the TAMS 2 processed grants were processed on the basis of forms that were not from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine but from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, instead. Those forms are not the …

I thank the Minister for his response. Form S198 from the Department is very comprehensive and contains registered electrical contractor details, as the Minister outlined. This is the SEAI form. It is basically the same, but not exactly the same because it does not contain those details. There is no way of checking whether the person who filled out the form is an approved Safe Electric Ireland installer. If a person has been taken off the Safe Electric Ireland list, there does not seem to be any way of checking tha…

They do not.

They do not.

I accept the Minister's bona fides. However, I am taking information from replies to previous parliamentary questions I tabled. Half of those applications were on the wrong forms. They are very similar but not they are not the same. There is serious information missing from one to the other. I am really worried about this. Does the Minister agree that farmers are at a legal disadvantage because of the Department's lack of oversight in respect of this matter? There is no way of figuring out whether the person doing …

This question is on the social welfare appeals office. The staff in the Department of Social Protection do a fantastic job. I have read reports where the Ombudsman commends the staff, the appeals officers, the deciding officers, the work they do and the way they deal with the public. I want the Minister to report that back to the staff of the Department. They are very professional and very helpful to Members all the time. I am interested in the number of cases currently being considered by the social welfare appeal…

I thank the Minister for her response and commend her on the work she is doing in this area, especially updating the IT systems, which should make for a huge improvement there. I ask the Minister to give us a bit more of a breakdown of which schemes or areas are causing the most difficulty with respect to appeals. Is there anything standing out there with respect to the number of appeals being lodged for a particular scheme, for instance? What is the longest waiting time in the various schemes she has in front of h…

I commend the Minister on her efforts to improve the time. A period of 29.2 weeks is quite a long time to be waiting for a decision, and especially if the person does not have any income over that period. Obviously when income has been reduced quite considerably, there is a stress that goes with that. Does the Minister have targets in respect of these times of 29.2 weeks and 17.6 weeks? Is there a target to reduce them further by, perhaps, halving them in time with new systems coming in place, more resources and so…

Deputy Bruton sends his apologies. He wants to ask the Minister whether the community employment scheme has been subject to programme evaluation, if there are plans for its evolution and if she will make a statement on the matter.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Community employment schemes have always been perceived as a labour market activation instrument. Is its value in supporting valuable social enterprise now a more dominant source of its benefits, particularly as we have close to full employment? The work done by community employment schemes in communities is very valuable. Should we be looking at ways of encouraging more people to take up these roles? There are limits as to how long they can stay in these roles. I und…

I acknowledge the great work done by the Government. We are beyond full employment. This is what I have been hearing recently. I have heard commentators use this phrase. As communities find it difficult to recruit new community employment candidates to sustain their work, do we need to think differently about the role? Do we need to think about it in a different way, potentially with longer-term placements as an outlet for social prescribing to engage talent not deemed part of the labour force? Perhaps we could inc…

This is an absolutely brilliant scheme and it is really helping many children and families around the country. I compliment the Minister on that. Has the Department issued any guidelines regarding the quality of the food and consistency of quality? Are any guidelines issued on the packaging the food comes in? If a child does not avail of the meal - we all know children do not always eat what is put in front of them - is there an issue around that with respect to food not being used or being left over? I have heard …