One thing that is clear is that urban dereliction and decay is rampant in our country and this Croí Cónaithe vacant property refurbishment grant is a game changer in terms of incentivising occupation of these dwellings and commercial spaces, because some can be commercial, provided they have been vacant for two years and were built before 1993. Will the Minister of State review grant amounts or change them in any way to encourage more people to get involved in refurbishment in every part of the country, urban and r…

I agree these are comprehensive, continually changing and improving ways of getting people into homes they so badly need. The Minister of State mentioned vacant homes officers. I think we initially paid about €30,000 or €40,000 for local authorities to keep these people in employment. In fact, it turned out that most of them were doing nothing in respect of vacant homes. The grant to councils was increased to get more feedback and to get more commitment from them. Is there or will there be a quarterly report or a w…

For clarity, will there be a report from the vacant homes officers nationally so that we can read and see what they are doing? They have to be seen to be accountable. The outcome of their work must be visible and clear. I repeat that that was clearly not the case in the past. The Minister of State welcomes CPO and I respect him for saying so. Is there a plan to manage it? Will the Department appoint a person, persons or a unit that will drive that? We cannot take no from local authorities if they do not take the lo…

Year after year.

Something that must be addressed, and is being addressed, is the question of a skills shortages. We are short approximately 20,000 workers with the appropriate skills to build the more than 33,000 houses we want. In this respect the new centre in Drogheda for training apprentices with a €4.5 million investment will see 400 apprentices going through it over the next 12 months. This is the future. On the question the Deputy asked, there are other issues that have to be addressed also.

I accept that. The Acting Chair has been very nice to me.

I want to make a point about refugees and asylum seekers. In building the modular homes, we have to be right in what we are doing and make them available to all people. We must stand up to xenophobia and racism in our country.

I was sickened to see, near North Wall, the term "Irish lives matter". Of course they do. Everybody's life matters, but people have been raped, murdered and slaughtered in Ukraine. People are saying there should be a cap on the number of them coming here. We had a cap on the number of Jewish refugees coming to Ireland during the Second World War. We stopped them from coming into the country. We must make sure such disgraceful, shameful historic events do not happen again. I feel very angry. People should not be abl…

Speaking of my PA-----

It is okay. I will speak to Deputy Ó Murchú afterwards.

This question relates to the campaign for better pay and working conditions led by personal assistants who work in institutes for further education. They are difficult to recruit and their payments vary depending on the education and training board, ETB, from which they get money. SOLAS provides the overall funding. We need a proper career structure to ensure students with disabilities can participate fully in every aspect of third level education. They cannot do that at present. The people who help them are badly …

I congratulate the Minister on his commitment, vitality and the way he is changing things. This is a huge area where, as he said, there needs to be a levelling of the playing pitch for people with disabilities. One of the issues we need to determine is how many people, on average, need assistance. We need to make sure there are whole-time equivalent jobs for that. Colleges vary in size but it is not acceptable that somebody who is the arms and legs of somebody with a disability, who could be a notetaker, or who hel…

I welcome those statistics. The Minister knows the issue. I know he is fighting for students with disabilities and that he will do his very best. I am very happy with his response. We also need to address the issue of the percentage of people with disabilities who are employed nationally in State and semi-State bodies. It is a big issue. There was a quota that was very low. We should look at increasing that quota to allow full participation in our society by all people with disabilities, in addition to the supports…

I welcome the Minister for Education. I want to explain to her what is wrong with the way the Department is applying DEIS school status in Ardee. There are four schools in Ardee. One of them, a post-primary school, has DEIS status, so every student who is over 12 or 13 and who goes there has DEIS status. They have special educational supports. There are three primary schools in the town. One, the Monastery National School, is essentially a boys' school. There is an Educate Together school, and there is Scoil Mhuire…

That is the same reply the Minister gave me last week, or the week before. There has obviously been no change in the Department. I urge the Minister to inquire again into the issue of gender inequality that is arising here. I appreciate her reply but ask her to listen to the point that no girl going to a primary school in Ardee is getting DEIS support, not one, while every boy is. That is not acceptable. Every boy attending primary school in Ardee is getting a hot meal at school while no girl attending is. Twins co…

What about the girls?

The Minister is not addressing this. It is discrimination.

I welcome the Minister to the debate. This budget and the actions she has taken as Minister show a caring, competent and concerned Government and Minister at work. This budget has been particularly well received, such as the €12 increase in the maximum rate of all core weekly payments, the €2 increase in payments for children, increases for social welfare recipients and so on. I also welcome the once-off double payment for all weekly paid social welfare recipients, including the double payment of child benefit, whi…

I raise for the third time on Questions on Policy and Legislation the plight of some very vulnerable citizens, many of whom are elderly and in poor health, living in fuel poverty and in mobile homes, which are the most inefficient homes for energy in the country. They cannot benefit from the €600 energy credit because they do not have an ESB meter registered in their name. They get their electricity from the supply park operator. I have raised this issue with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, who promised to get back to m…

The British-Irish Council meets today. It is the first time in 15 years a British Prime Minister has attended. That is a very good omen. I welcome in particular the fact that Rishi Sunak is looking at trying to improve the relationship between our two countries. That is significant. Does the Tánaiste agree that the key relationship in bringing about the peace and prosperity on our island was the relationship in the past between British Prime Ministers and Irish taoisigh?