Having listened to his response to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, I am still at a loss as to why he intends to give up to €144,000 per apartment to developers so they may do the job that they and, indeed, the Government believe they are capable of doing. Through the Chair, I will once again ask who initiated the scheme. Who was around the table when the Government came up with this scheme? The Minister should feel free to interrupt me now. He has rolled his eyes and jumped in at various points. Who helped him to initiate…

At the weekend, the Business Post reported that the introduction of a vacant homes tax is in doubt. When my colleague, Deputy Cian O’Callaghan, asked the Taoiseach about this yesterday, he said that information collected by Revenue related to local property tax is being analysed to assess the merits and inform the design of a vacant property tax. This seems to suggest that the Taoiseach believes the merits of a vacant homes tax are in doubt. His Fine Gael Government colleagues have been promising to introduce one s…

My question is to ask the Minister if she will meet with an organisation, Disabled Artists & Disabled Academics, to discuss the issues facing disabled artists in particular regarding the recently launched basic income for the arts pilot scheme. The Minister will be aware of the pilot scheme, which was launched by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. It is a welcome move towards acknowledging the often unseen and unpaid work of artists trying to work in society, but there is a genuine…

It is important to recognise from the beginning that while I appreciate that the minimum basic income for the arts is the responsibility of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, this is a Government initiative and there is crossover, so I will address them both together. There is genuine concern that the scheme will not be worth the energy or the time required if it means that disabled artists will be under an increased level of scrutiny, having to repeatedly prove and prove again the existence of their disability…

I am conscious of it, but there are a couple of things we have to be conscious of in addition to that. An artist under the basic income for the arts scheme may be able to work 40 hours per week in applying themselves to the arts, but that may not be possible for an artist who has disability. They may only be able to apply themselves for ten hours a week, for example. That is very different. That should not mean they lose their blind pension or their disability payments. There is not one homogenous type of disabilit…

I do not think it is me next.

My question is brief. I want to ask the Minister the date she expects to publish a child maintenance review group report and if she will make a statement on the matter.

I thank the Minister and I welcome getting some degree of insight to the report. In her next response I ask the Minister to give an estimated date for publication of the report. Would it be before summer, for example? It would be helpful if we had some degree of knowledge of the timeline. We both agree that it is abhorrent that lone parents and their children continue to be one of the groups that is among the most, if not the most, at risk of experiencing poverty in Ireland. Despite this we continue to see child ma…

I thank the Minister for her response. I fully appreciate this is a matter that crosses many Departments. I also appreciate the urgency behind it. A report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul some months ago indicated many one-parent families are choosing between having meals and paying their electricity costs. These issues will not be addressed through the report. The report might give some indication of the urgency of Government to tackle it across Departments. That is why I would like to know when we will se…

I ask the Minister if the Education (Health, Relationships and Sex Education) Bill 2021 is on track to be read a second time within the nine-month timeframe she set out in the amendment passed by the House and if she will make a statement on the matter. I remind her this motion was moved by me on 24 November 2021. The Minister amended it to suggest the Government would read it again in nine months. However, I am very conscious that it is currently not on the summer legislative programme, despite that commitment and…

I thank the Minister for her comprehensive response. I am very conscious that all the great work that has been done in respect of the online resources, and the work of the NCCA that started several years ago at this point, will be rendered somewhat meaningless if there is not a standardisation across all publicly funded schools that means they will have to enact particular programmes. The situation we have at present involves a scenario where schools, depending on the management organisation, the board of managemen…

The Minister highlighted that a lot of work is going on. She also mentioned the potential for legislative changes in her initial response. She has said this several times. I note she said this to the press a year ago following the announcement of the Flourish programme, she said it during the contribution in November at the second reading of our Bill and she has just mentioned it. What legislative changes does she anticipate may have to be made in order to standardise this? Is it something we can expect in the legi…

Last year, students with English as an additional language were specifically mentioned as a group in the pupil eligibility groups for the inclusion programmes. I do not understand why they have not been included in the guidelines in the same way this year. Eligibility has been changed since last year. If needs be, I can point out the differences.

I am glad the Minister of State mentioned the students from Ukraine seeking refuge here. When the summer programme was recently published in The Irish Times , following the Minister of State's announcement, the headline in the newspaper stated "'Summer school' plan to include thousands of Ukrainian students". However, in reality it is only if places are left over after the other groups of students listed in the guidance document have been accommodated that migrant students, including those recently arrived in Irela…

The Minister of State mentioned that schools will be supported. Will she specify for me how schools will be supported to ensure there are enough teachers or SNAs? How will that support manifest itself in real terms for schools that are already struggling to ensure they have enough teachers and SNAs to meet that need? Are all autistic children eligible for this year's summer programme and July provision?

I ask the Minister to outline her plans to protect LGBTQI+ students and staff; and if she will make a statement on the matter. When I say protect, I mean more than just the essential protection from bullying and harassment. I mean protection from being marginalised, excluded and made feel invisible, which is what many relationships and sexuality education, RSE, programmes do. It is also about a culture in staffrooms that the religious ethos has inflicted on teachers. We heard that mentioned at the Irish National Te…

I am conscious it was only in 2015 that we passed laws to make it illegal for schools run by religious organisations to discriminate against LGBTQI+ teachers on the grounds of their sexuality. We have also heard stories from teachers that show there is still a fear of having one's sexuality known about within the school community. During recent teachers' conferences, I read a report in a newspaper about a teacher who could not talk about the grief he felt over the loss of a loved one for fear of what it would mean …

I read the Department of Education strategy for 2021 to 2023. RSE, sexual education and LGBTQI+ matters are not mentioned. If this is a priority, as I fully believe the Minister feels it is, why is it not mentioned in the strategy for 2021 to 2023 when teachers raise issues about feeling uncomfortable in their place of work every year? Can we place emphasis on it and place it into our strategies? If it is written down, it becomes an action to be fulfilled and not just a matter of rhetoric.

My questions pertain to the announcement of the intention to increase the Defence Forces by 3,000 staff. That is a worthy endeavour which I hope we achieve. In the meantime, how is it intended to ensure we keep the staff we already have? We talk a lot about pay and conditions but what other steps does the Minister intend to take to ensure we keep existing Defence Forces staff?

I thank the Minister for his response. He has answered my question about the other factors, so I will go a bit further. In terms of the message Minister gave to media about the potential for the recruitment of a further 3,000 staff, what units would those staff be in? Could the Minister give us some sense of this? Would that be in the Defence Forces? Would it be in the civilian department? Would it be in the Department of Defence, for example, in terms of recruiting more specialised personnel? In terms of where the…