Last month was the 20th anniversary of a meeting that the Taoiseach and I attended with Margaret Best and officials from the Department of Health about the State's introduction of a no-fault vaccine compensation scheme. Over the past two decades, while governments have been committed to the introduction of such a scheme in the interests of public health and the individuals concerned, we have always remained one report away from action. Now we have all of those reports on the desk of the Minister, Deputy Stephen Don…

Eight out of ten businesses are now struggling to fill vacancies and we need a suite of novel solutions to address this, including making work pay for those in low-paid employment, addressing youth unemployment, making our regions more attractive for employers and employees and reviewing the operation of our work permit system.

The Minister of State is correct that the permit system is a short-term solution but we do need that sticking plaster at the moment. A constituent was on to me this morning whose holidays have been cancelled because the hotel in question has closed. We are encouraging people to holiday at home but they are getting their deposits back for holidays. At the moment the effective waiting time for processing a work permit is seven months. That is completely unacceptable when there is such a crisis in staffing. The Minist…

Yesterday it was 22 weeks.

Another short-term solution we could take is actually to make work pay, particularly within our tax and welfare codes. It should always be financially better for people to return to work. We still have 4.8% unemployment and 5.6% youth unemployment. We have a substantial number of people who are only willing to work three days a week because the system prohibits them from taking on overtime or working the full five days. We have cliff-edge barriers like the PRSI barrier and the bizarre situation that social housing …

Some eight in ten businesses are now struggling to fill vacancies. We need a suite of new and novel solutions to address this. The highest level of demand is across the banking, finance and insurance sectors. These are jobs that can be done in any part of this country. To achieve this, we need to make our regions far more attractive not just for employers, but for employees as well.

As the Tánaiste knows, we discussed the idea of the hub-and-spoke strategy as set out in Project Ireland 2040 around the Cabinet table. The Government took the decision to designate Athlone as the new potential city, helping to attract IDA jobs and investment into the region and ensuring that it is now fast becoming the silicon heartlands, with a bigger percentage of the workforce employed in software development than any other town in Ireland or the UK. Towns such as Roscommon have an abundance of ready-to-move-in…

We have an ideal site in Carrick-on-Shannon for that. I want to focus on this pipeline coming to Athlone, which is very positive. However, as the Tánaiste knows, we have a challenge in Athlone on both the Roscommon and the Westmeath sides in terms of available development land. Yet, 15 minutes up the road we have 50 acres of development land with water, waste water, fibre optic cable, gas and the motorway on the IDA campus and adjoining lands at St. Brigid’s Hospital in Ballinasloe. I have asked the Tánaiste before…

If we look at towns such as Roscommon that are-----

No. There are two questions grouped together. I have four interventions on two questions.

The Standing Orders are quite clear.

The Standing Orders are quite clear. Where there are two questions grouped together, there are four interventions. The questions are in my name, so I have four interventions.

I will. If we look at towns such as Roscommon, they are reliant on indigenous employers. However, the supports for employers with more than ten staff are only focused on the export sector and the issue of import substitution is ignored. This strategy needs to change post-Covid, particularly when we have seen the threats we have had to supply chains. Will the Tánaiste review that? Second, before the end of this decade, this country will have the most geographically extensive web of pure fibre telecommunications netw…

By June 2020, 58% of Irish households could access broadband speeds of 1 Gbps and we will have 100% of such coverage in the coming years. There will be 146,000 km of fibre-optic cable, a web of such cable with a geographic spread like none other globally. We must exploit this investment and generate foreign direct investment jobs in every single village in Ireland.

We have a significant opportunity to attract foreign direct investment and staff into our provincial towns and rural areas. They are nice communities in which to live and work. That is thanks to investment through the urban and rural regeneration funds. We need to market and promote the whole package and not just a select few sites in a select few towns. We need a unique marketing strategy for every one of our provincial towns, highlighting not just the industrial aspect but the opportunities to live, recreational …

It is the staff who will tell them in future and we need to attract the staff.

Are we attracting the ones that will do that?

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this important issue on the floor of the House. I want to raise with the Minister of State the lack of school places for children with autism, which is now forcing students from south Roscommon to travel up to 100 km each day to avail of an education. I know of two children in south Roscommon who are travelling up to 100 km. Another two children I am aware of, in County Westmeath, must also travel such a distance. The children in Count…

I thank the Minister for her commitment to invoke section 37 if required. While the NCSE has told the Minister of State that it is confident it will meet the needs, it has not told the parents that. The parents I have spoken to, the parents Claire Earley has spoken to and the parents Senator Carrigy has spoken to have been offered places either in Longford town or in Glenamaddy in north-east Galway. They are local parents in Athlone but that is what they have been offered. Although this is outside the Minister of S…

One is okay in isolation but there are 18 in this case.