I could pick on part of Deputy Ó Murchú's last comment and spend the next 20 minutes very easily answering how we got here. It was obvious to me when I was the Minister with responsibility for energy. Some of the officials present will know, from the quite heated discussions I had in the Department and at Cabinet, that I was aware the lack of management of energy demand on the grid was going to create a significant problem for us. I flagged this back in 2017 when it became very obvious to me what was going on. This…

It is two and a half years.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: acknowledges that: — pre-hospital emergency care services in Ireland are changing with the growing and ageing population, and a holistic approach is needed to address the issues that hospitals, ambulance services, community, voluntary services and health care workers are facing; — Ireland is one of the few countries in the world to boast a National Ambulance Service (NAS) with a single national regulator, the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC); — pre-hospital emergency care in re…

There are up to 10,000 community defibrillators in Ireland, according to the Irish Red Cross. Some of these are maintained by approximately 200 community first responder schemes registered with the NAS. This falls well short of the 275 first responder schemes registered with the NAS before the pandemic. The vast majority of these defibrillators have been funded by local communities or through Government grants, yet there is no national database outlining their location, whether they are maintained, whether they are…

When the Taoiseach resumed his current role in December he announced that a unit would be set up within his Department to focus on reducing child poverty and improving well-being in order to make Ireland the best country in Europe in which to be a child. I believe it would help if we started by improving access to necessary therapies through primary care services, including occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy. We have all seen the crisis in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service,…

Late last year, 436 children in County Galway were waiting for a physiotherapy appointment, with the longest waiting time being more than three years. In County Roscommon, a further 95 children were waiting for physiotherapy, with the longest waiting time being almost one year. The picture is just as bleak for occupational therapy, where 540 children are waiting for an appointment in Galway, with wait times of more than a year in some cases. A further 115 children in County Roscommon are waiting for occupational th…

A couple of weeks ago at the Business Committee, I raised the issue of the sheep industry. As the Taoiseach knows, back in 2016, I secured the introduction of the sheep welfare scheme. Since then, income for sheep farmers has reduced by 550% according to Teagasc and fertiliser costs have gone up by a further 400%. Yet, we are introducing a paltry top-up of just 20% to that welfare scheme. The industry is on its knees. I have looked for a debate on this subject at the Business Committee and I hope this will be facil…

Commitments were given in the last two programmes for Government to introduce a no-fault vaccine compensation scheme. This was promised again by the Taoiseach's predecessor in advance of the introduction of the Covid vaccine programme. My engagement on this issue with Ministers for Health has been ongoing for the last 250 months, or over two decades. When will we see this compensation scheme introduced in this State as is the case in many other countries across the globe?

The west coast of Ireland has significant potential for the development of renewable energy. I refer, in particular, to wind and wave energy. I want to know what engagement is taking place between Government and Enterprise Ireland with regard to establishing a national renewable energy business accelerator programme to support Irish entrepreneurs and businesses in capitalising on the potential and creating jobs in every single community across the western half of the country.

I thank the Minister. A study commissioned by the Irish Wind Energy Association in 2020 estimates that the development of just 3 GW of offshore wind energy off the west coast, approximately 4% of the actual energy potential off our coast, could lead to the creation of 2,500 jobs during the construction phase and a further 600 permanent jobs once the wind farms are in operation. The study also estimated that the development of the offshore wind energy sector could contribute €1.7 billion a year to the Irish economy.…

As the Minister knows well, when everyone is in charge, no one is in charge. This is a cross-Government issue. I am aware of the Minister's commitment in respect of this matter. I am asking him to take ownership and to take a leadership role. We need to see investment in key infrastructure that will serve as the pillar to support the Gael Offshore Network, to anchor additional foreign direct investment coming in here. One of those areas is that of our ports. We do not have the capacity in any of our ports to constr…

Thanks to the Covid pandemic, there has been a realisation that the delivery of broadband to every home across Ireland has the potential to transform our economy, and no more so than in rural Ireland. If this is going to happen, though, then we need a new strategic approach to supporting our provincial towns around the country and encouraging that type of investment. What are we doing to achieve that?

Not yet, Dara.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. As he is aware, Project Ireland 2040 refers to a hub and spoke strategy. One of the towns identified in that regard is Athlone, which is doing very well and has become, in effect, the silicon heartland of northern Europe, with more tech jobs per capita than anywhere else in our region. However, that is not spinning out to other towns such as Longford, Roscommon, Ballinasloe, Mullingar and Tullamore. The Minister of State gave the example of Sligo. I will give the exam…

Although IDA Ireland is achieving its target of 50% of its jobs being outside Dublin, we all know the big difficulty is revealed if you take the likes of Cork and Galway, the latter of which is in my region and that of the Minister of State, out of those figures. The figures are very skewed outside of the major cities. The Minister of State mentioned the town of Roscommon, which has not experienced FDI. The urban and rural areas of the town are now both completely supplied with fibre broadband. In fact, there are t…

With Britain leaving the European Union, many supply chains have been disrupted. This has been compounded by Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. The State should be supporting Irish companies that are substituting products or components that are being imported from outside the European Union but its development agencies have a blinkered approach to any businesses involved in this area. That needs to be addressed.

I am not talking about at the issue at that level. I have raised this previously in the House. The reality is that despite all the supply chain difficulties and the challenges in respect of currency fluctuation and general inflation impacting on competitiveness which are causing difficulties, particularly in certain sectors, there is no focus whatsoever on how those issues can be addressed by supporting indigenous companies to meet some of those import needs. When I raised this with the Minister’s predecessor, I wa…

That is the very point I am making. I am not looking for any tariffs to be put up. Tariffs have not suited our economy. All we have to do is look at history to see that. One indigenous crop with huge potential is hemp. There are issues regarding the regulation and licensing of that in this country. I am talking about developing and supporting businesses in this country that are replacing product coming from other parts of the world outside the EU. We know there is far more flexibility with EU state aid rules post C…

The European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020 lay responsibility on public bodies to make their websites and mobile apps accessible to people with disabilities. The next phase of this will involve the private sector and SMEs. I want us to get ahead of the curve and adapt our trading online vouchers for those who have already drawn them down, or will draw them down, to make their websites accessible in such a manner.

I thank the Minister for his last comment. That is my objective in this matter. Inclusion and Accessibility Labs gave a presentation in the Houses of the Oireachtas recently. It pointed out that of 41 websites it audited, only 16 were considered usable by people with a disability. This does not just concern people with a disability. Many more people, for different reasons, find websites and technology difficult. Historically, there has been an under-drawdown of the trading online voucher. Very few draw down the max…