Figures provided to me by the Department show that up to last June, approximately 750 workers who contracted Covid and were out of work for over 12 months were in receipt of a social welfare payment. This does not include those who made a recovery from Covid and subsequently had a relapse of long Covid. We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg as regards this condition. This condition needs official recognition and needs to be defined as a prescribed illness. If we continue to officially brush this illness under t…

The survey of income and living conditions for 2021 showed households headed by lone parents continued to be some of the hardest hit by deprivation and poverty. This is before the full impact of the cost-of-living crisis of the past two years is taken into account. Lone parents are struggling to meet the cost of living on a day-to-day basis for themselves and their children and we need to break that cycle of poverty.

We are in a perverse situation where we are in an economy at full employment and we need workers within our economy, especially in the whole digital area and yet, we have appallingly poor participation rates for one-parent families. We are rolling out high-speed broadband to every single home in the country, and as I said to the Minister of State previously, we need to look at how we can now utilise the digital hubs as people transition to high-speed broadband in their own homes. Surely there is now an opportunity …

The difficulty with all of that, with all due respect, is that this is what we have been doing down through the decades, decade after decade. What I am suggesting to the Minister of State is that right across the economy at the moment, not just domestically but globally, there is a huge shortage of staff in the area of cybersecurity. This is an area of flexible employment. It can be done remotely at different times in the day and in different markets, be they here domestically, or across Europe, the Middle East or …

While there is no doubt we need new homes, as the Minister is aware, I have long advocated the release of vacant homes to assist those in urgent need of housing. I have argued that we have streets in our towns and villages that have not had a football kicked on them for a generation. Many of these have vacant family homes close to schools and services with high-speed broadband outside the door. My proposal for the introduction of the vacant home refurbishment grant, which the Minister steered through the Government…

I thank the Minister for his reply. To put a face on this discussion, in November last year, I raised the case of Una with the then Tánaiste. Una was a pensioner aged 66 at that time and despite working all her life, she was in receipt of a non-contributory State pension. She was refused the medical card because she receives a net income of €1 per week on top of her pension for renting out a field. Her next-door neighbour gets an extra €11 per week in the State contributory pension and qualifies for the medical car…

I formally express my deep dissatisfaction at the absence tonight of the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. In fairness, the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, who is familiar with the issues, informed me of his unavailability. However, not one of the other two Ministers in that Department has attended this evening. Such absences are becoming a worrying trend in this Government. Two weeks ago, when I tabled a motion discussing the struggles of farmers in the Shannon Callows, none of…

Now we see the reason for my frustration that there is not a Minister or Minister from State from the relevant Department here to respond. The points I raised have not been addressed, which is not the fault of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien. A further point that needs to be addressed along with the staffing issue is the significant hurdle that presents in the form of the environmental regulations, which are a kind of black box that complicates project implementation. Currently, pending judicial interpretatio…

Last year we had the highest number of road deaths in six years and, tragically, it looks like 2023 will surpass this figure. While we need increased enforcement, we also need to recognise that driver error is one of the biggest causes of deaths on Irish roads. We need to address this by using in-car technology that can significantly reduce road accidents and deaths.

I thank the Minister of State for his response and the progress being made on this. It is in the context of the Science Week Ireland presentation that Members of the Oireachtas received from Professor Martin Mullins from the University of Limerick and Professor Martin Glavin from the University of Galway, who articulated to us how this technology, using artificial intelligence, can significantly reduce road deaths. In that context, what can we do with vehicles imported into the European Union to ensure any second-h…

In the presentation, the results given to us, based on UK research and data, show that these technologies could reduce the overall number of accidents by close to one quarter and that pedestrian accidents could be reduced by 28%. If that was applied across all vehicles in Ireland today, the 42 pedestrians who sadly lost their lives on Irish roads last year - the highest figure in the past 15 years - would be reduced by 12 and there would be 12 more people walking around today. I ask, first, that the standards would…

It would save emissions as well, which the Minister, Deputy Ryan, would be happy with.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, is a major health issue in Ireland claiming the lives of four people daily. It is a lung condition affecting one in 13 adults which hinders the movement of air in and out of their lungs and makes breathing difficult. Despite its manageability, only 20% of those with COPD are diagnosed. Often, this is too late, as diagnoses frequently occur during medical emergencies. This contributes to Ireland having the highest hospital admission rates for COPD in the developed world w…

I want to focus on one contributory factor for COPD, that is, poor housing. Research commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and produced by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has shown that retrofitting of homes of those with COPD or asthma reduces their use of GP, emergency department and hospital services. This is a win for our climate and for our health services. Yet if someone in receipt of the fuel allowance applies for the home energy retrofit grant under…

I was never shy of that, Tánaiste.

Three years ago, the long-awaited final report of the expert group on the review of the law of torts and the management of clinical negligence claims was published but we are still waiting for action. This includes the provision of the long-awaited vaccine damage compensation scheme, which the Tánaiste committed to progressing both as Minister for health and as Taoiseach. It is in the interests of both public health, and the individuals and their families concerned, to deliver a no-fault compensation scheme for tho…

We have ambitious plans to generate just short of 30 GW of renewable electricity off our coast, with an estimated €80 billion capital expenditure investment. What are the Government's plans to develop the necessary onshore and offshore infrastructure, including enterprise capacity to support Ireland's energy revolution?

I am losing track of it, even me.

I am glad to hear that. Considering the huge job creation potential and the economic benefits of the offshore wind sector, and in the context of what the Minister has just said to me, how is Enterprise Ireland adjusting its focus to balance between aiding SMEs and exporting, and tapping into the domestic renewable energy potential? The difficulty for Enterprise Ireland is that up to now it has been primarily focused on export-driven growth. What strategies are being considered to shift attention towards existing in…

What measures are being implemented to ensure that job creation is maximised in communities across the western seaboard and the western half of the island? How will the programmes the Minister has spoken about address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the renewable energy sector? How is the cross-Government co-ordination going? This is one of the big concerns I have. I know the Minister will come back to me officially and tell me everything is hunky-dory but I have been on the other side of the t…