I want to make a point about Dealgan House, where 23 people died during Covid-19. In January, the Taoiseach promised me in the Dáil that the Government or the Department of Health was examining options to respect and meet the needs of the families and their concerns about these deaths. Since then we have heard absolutely nothing. It is a disgrace that the Department of Health is refusing to act in this matter. I challenge the Minister, if these were children we would have our inquiry. Is it because they are older c…

This is a very important debate. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. I support much of what she says and does, particularly regarding the Brandon report which will be discussed by the committee tomorrow. We need more change. We are not getting enough of it. We need more Ministers like the Minister of State in the Government, and I laud her for what she is doing. That is a fact. It is also a fact that from 2016 to 2020 almost 16,000 people aged over 65 years were abused, and it was reported to the HSE.…

As yet, there is no published plan for how Dublin Airport's chief executive and board of management are going to handle the issues next weekend. I am very concerned at the way people have been treated. Families are disgusted and absolutely appalled at what happened. Approximately 1,000 people missed their flights. The stress and tension caused to families with young children, older people and people with disabilities is unforgivable. I tell the Minister and the board and chief executive of the airport that they sho…

Older people are being encouraged to stay in their homes as long as they can, especially as they age and get sick. The demand for home carers has never been greater and neither has the funding. However, the fact is every week we find people who have been assessed as needing home care for whom there is no carer available. At the end of March over 5,458 people nationally had been assessed as needing a home carer but not having one. There were 90 patients in acute hospitals awaiting discharge with nobody to look after…

I very much welcome the initiatives but they do not change the fact that home care was provided by the State through the HSE and that has changed now. I get glossy brochures regularly from big companies that are moving into this area and treating it as a market rather than what I believe it should be, which is a career for people. My point is I do not see any sign of a national recruitment drive. I see no ads on the television. I do not hear it on the radio. I welcome the Minister of State's initiatives on visas fo…

I support the Minister of State with regard to community care and voluntary organisations. However, it is not possible in some communities to do that, particularly as towns grow to become cities and people are not as neighbourly. They do not know their neighbours as well as was previously the case and that community benefit is lost. I am delighted that it is there. Could the Minister of State let me have a note on how much is paid to private providers nationally and the number of hours they provide? They appear to …

I would like to express my concerns about the loss of jobs in County Louth this week. Some 172 jobs will be lost in PayPal. Since January, over 70 redundancies have been announced at Hilton Food Group. There are concerns about jobs in Premier Periclase, which is a local industry in Drogheda that is in transition. I compliment IDA Ireland on the work it has done in buying additional land in County Louth. I am speaking particularly of the 39-acre IDA Ireland park in Drogheda. It has made a commitment to an advanced b…

That is very good, Tánaiste.

I congratulate the Minister and the Government for the work they are doing and the energy the Minister is putting into protecting the Good Friday Agreement. He and the Government, and all of us in the House, must make every effort to ensure Ireland remains at peace and the agreement signed almost 25 years ago is put into full fruition and comes to its full strength. In this respect, tomorrow the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement will meet Mr. Tim O'Connor, one of the civil servants …

More than a year ago, the live register increased by in excess of 1 million due to the Covid pandemic. When does the Minister expect the live register to fall below its pre-pandemic level?

The figures speak for themselves. They show a clear reopening of our economy and significant growth in employment. Indeed, the European Union is predicting our gross domestic product will rise by 5.4% this year, which is the second highest in Europe. Does the Minister agree that Government policies are working? The figures are accurate. In fact, a record 2.5 million people are now in employment and in 2021, notwithstanding the Covid pandemic, we have added 229,000 new jobs.

I again welcome the Minister's comments and the facts she has given us. This is not necessarily her responsibility, but the question that arises is that of our skills shortage in the economy. We need specific skills that cannot be met by the European Union. We ought to consider increasing the capacity of our economy to bring people in from outside the European Union who can meet those specific skills shortages. Otherwise, our economy will not be able to continue to grow.

Like Deputy Dillon, I fully support the principle of the legislation that we progress to a living wage over the lifetime of this Government. That is at the very heart of Government policy. It is clear that all Members of the House feel the exponential increase in the cost of energy, the increase in the cost of living and the pressure on families in our dealings with the public in our constituencies every week. The Government is very much aware and conscious of that. In this debate, Opposition Deputies have commente…

There is a foul, disgusting and obnoxious malodour emanating from the Drogheda wastewater treatment plant. It is at its worst at night, at weekends and during warm weather. Nearby residents often feel ill and their well-being is significantly affected. Despite frequent meetings with Irish Water, things have not changed. The directive from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, that Irish Water must address these issues urgently was answered this week by the latter when it said it will have the final critical imp…

It is bigger than that. It is appalling.

On the last point, Louth County Council are leading the way. I do not know what is happening in Cork but Louth County Council identified over 100 abandoned homes and renovated them at an average cost of €100,000 per home. All of those homes are occupied and families are living in them. I agree with Deputy Cian O'Callaghan that we need a tax on empty homes. It is something for which I have been arguing in Fine Gael for a number of years. I hope more people are beginning to listen to the sense those arguments make. I…

Drogheda and east Meath have experienced great population growth recently. Indeed, there has been an exponential increase in this regard. Drogheda has been designated as a regional growth centre in the national development plan, NDP, which we welcome. What plans does the Minister have to provide additional employment opportunities for people in Drogheda and east Meath? The Minister is aware that the M1 motorway is chock-a-block with traffic going from Drogheda and east Meath to Dublin every morning, from about 5.30…

While I welcome the engagement of IDA Ireland with the local chamber of commerce and the Tánaiste's visit to BD when that significant investment was announced, the fact is that we have had no spin-off from the Amazon data centre. Data centres are very important for attracting other industries and potential employers that need to be near their data. Could the Tánaiste expand on what further or other actions we can take locally to work with IDA Ireland to attract more industry in? The commute is killing family life a…

I hear the Tánaiste. Part of the argument about data centres, and it is top priority for IDA Ireland to encourage them, is that they are supposed to be capable of attracting further ancillary employment. It is not acceptable if we attract them in but do not get the spin-off from them. Amazon is interacting very well with the local community and I laud its efforts in the community spirit it is generating. I hear what the Tánaiste is saying. Drogheda is now the largest town in Ireland, and is shortly to become a city…

Listening to President Zelenskyy this morning was a very moving experience. His words were thoughtful and reflective. The truths he told about the appalling things that are happening to his fellow citizens in Ukraine are shocking and horrifying. Worse is probably yet to come. Putin's soldiers are massacring civilians and razing cities to the ground just like the Nazis did in the Second World War. What is happening is shocking and unbelievable. Some people in this House have spoken about Israel. That is fine. That i…