The financial pressure that is placed on families providing full-time care for a child can be horrendous. A recent study from the National University of Ireland, Galway, found that the average annual cost for families of an autistic child amounted to €28,000, relating to private services, lost income and informal care. The current incapacitated child credit is just €3,300, which is insufficient to meet the costs facing parents.

I thank the Minister. The 2019 research by NUI Galway was carried out by Áine Roddy and Ciaran O'Neill. That research showed that the annual average cost per child for families amounted to €28,464.69 and was related to private autism services, lost income and informal care. By comparison, the annual State expenditure per child with autism in terms of related health, social and education resources was €14,192. That means families were out of pocket to the tune of €9,489.60. The key findings have shown there is a sig…

That is no problem.

I thank the Minister for his constructive response, which I acknowledge. The out-of-pocket expenses for private therapeutic interventions and assessments were the highest category of medical costs associated. The average cost incurred by families was €948 but there was a considerable variation in that, ranging from zero right up to €14,400. Part of that variation is the variation in access to services. I will give one practical example. The waiting list at present for occupational therapy and assessments in the wes…

By the end of 2022, 75,000 fewer homes will have access to high-speed broadband than was planned two years ago under the national broadband plan. The build of the national broadband plan will be behind by a full 12 months after the first two years of the project. This will have a significant impact on the uptake of remote working across the country and an overall impact on climate emissions, especially in rural areas.

There is a contradiction in what we are being told. We are told that the primary reason for delays in the roll-out is Covid-19. That just does not stack up. There have been ongoing delays in engagement with local authorities, with CIÉ and with Transport Infrastructure Ireland with regard to getting access to infrastructure. That does not seem to be acknowledged by everyone. Why is there a cover-up and failure to acknowledge that? Will the Minister of State answer a simple question? The single biggest subcontractor …

Any Deputy or Senator from rural Ireland was able to get accommodation throughout the lockdown. There are hotels, restaurants and guest houses across the country that would have thrown open their doors if they were approached about it. Some of them did, in relation to contractors. Local authorities can find emergency accommodation and they have a relationship with many bed and breakfasts throughout the country, so that just does not wash. I will give the Minister of State a piece of advice. Two years ago last month…

I will not ask the Minister of State to read out the same reply again, so I will go to my supplementary questions if that is okay with you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. It will leave time for other Members. I will take nóiméad amháin. The Minister of State made the point in his earlier reply to me that part of the reason for the delays was because of tree trimming, ducting and so forth. Eir achieved the targets to date, as the single biggest subcontractor to NBI. It subcontracted out the work to the exact same subcontr…

The problem is we have not had the sensible co-operation over the past 24 months. The Minister of State tells us today he expects 140,000 homes to be passed by the end of next year and the budget documentation we got a couple of weeks ago told us it would be 130,000, meaning only 10,000 more homes will be passed next year compared with this year. Where is the ramping up of this process? I have a final point that the Minister of State can take up directly, and I ask him to do so, with the European Commission. The de…

Hear, hear.

There are no figures for that. Deputy Bruton is right.

People need broadband now and not in 2030.

Will the Minister of State take it up with the Commission and get it to increase the definition from 30 Mbps?

I thank the Minister of State.

In 2009 the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform told the Dáil the failure to modernise the law on the registration of sex offenders would lead to Ireland becoming a safe haven for convicted sex offenders. Some 151 months later that gaping hole in our so-called sex offenders register has yet to be closed off. It is likely that some of the near-500 convicted rapists and paedophiles missing from the UK are residing here in Ireland, posing an unacceptable risk to women, children and vulnerable adults bec…

Following the passage of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, we now have to take into account the issue of sequestration. There is great anxiety among the farming community regarding what they will be asked to do as a result of carbon budgeting. We now have reports that agriculture will be asked to reduce emissions by up to one third, which, as the Minister knows, is a monumental task that will not be possible without some account being taken, in a practical way, of sequestration.

I welcome the commitments the Minister gave in respect of scientific research in this area. He is absolutely correct; without having a scientific basis, we have no opportunity to move forward. In 2016, this was made very clear to me, as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, from my engagement with colleague ministers throughout Europe and my Scottish counterpart. It was clear at that stage that that research should have taken place; we are a decade too late in doing it now. The outputs the Mi…

Let us put this in practical terms. We could be looking at an ask for the agricultural community of between 7 million tonnes and 8 million tonnes of a reduction between now and 2030. Teagasc has in place a roadmap that could achieve 2 million tonnes of that and, with a tailwind behind it, it might get up to 3.5 million tonnes. As an example, delivering on that target, however, would involve the use of protected urea, but protected urea cannot be got for love nor money at the moment. Parking the issue of forestry, w…

Project Ireland 2040 set a home retrofit target rate to see dirty fossil fuels taken out of our home heating systems by 2035. However, based on the rate of home retrofitting announced in last week's budget, it will now be 2050 before that is actually achieved. Yet, in order to reach our 2030 carbon budget goals we need to remove these fossil fuels from heating systems before the end of the decade. How much new money is going into retrofitting schemes next year? Why is there a 50% shortfall in what was actually comm…

I am talking about next year.