I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is important to put matters into context. Some 140,000 children are carried to school every day on a bus provided by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education.

I know about such children because there are some in my own constituency. There are still a few children for whom a bus has not been provided. Things happen. Unfortunately, we are in a very tight labour market and it is hard to find bus drivers. There is no doubt about that. To give the Deputy an example, one bus driver broke his ankle and could not drive the bus and nobody could be found to replace him. Unfortunately, the parents had to bring their children to school. Bus Éireann, in fairness to it, is working its…

I am well aware of classes D and C. Those were the rules in place. It was set out very clearly at the time and people were probably aware of that. I give the Deputy a commitment that I will look at it again.

I thank the Deputy. I am sorry to hear about the experience that lady had with her mother. We are committed to improving services in the mid-west region. A lot of additional funding has been allocated to UHL by this Government to achieve that. The budget has increased by 59%, to the tune of an additional €158 million, since 2019. Funding increased from €265 million to €423 million in 2023. Investment in the hospitals in the region has increased by 58%. Staffing at UHL has grown by 42%. The Minister has asked HIQA t…

Yes. The Minister has asked HIQA to examine the matter and he is waiting for the response.

No, he did not.

In relation to my Department of Social Protection, I brought a memorandum to the Cabinet today to provide supports to householders who have been impacted and who do not have insurance to cover such events. The Minister, Deputy Burke, also brought a memorandum to the Cabinet on supports for businesses. Those are the supports we are putting in place. The Deputy is right that a scheme is in place. I understand it is quite complicated in Bantry because the water came up from under the ground into the businesses. It was…

This sounds like a Topical Issue.

They have been elected, the same as us.

No.

Condemn them.

No, he will not.

As Minister for Social Protection, I am conscious that while inflation is falling, the cost of living continues to impact families and households across the country. When you go to the supermarket, you might have the same groceries in your basket, but the bill is a lot higher at the checkout. This budget is about giving people a bit of extra help and putting money back in their pockets. It is the largest social protection budget package in the history of the State, with over €2.6 billion worth of measures. It focus…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. At the onset of the pandemic, the Government acted early and without hesitation to support all workers who contracted Covid-19. Workers outside the public sector could avail of an enhanced illness benefit payment and eligibility criteria were set to include the largest cohort of workers possible, including the self-employed. The scheme paid some 578,000 claims at a cost of more than €350 million. The temporary scheme of paid leave for public health service employees was in…

I have not seen the report to which the Deputy referred. I know he has done a great deal of work representing people with long Covid. He has highlighted the issue on many occasions. I too have met people in my constituency office who told me they still feel the effects of Covid and are unable to do the same things physically they could before they had it. There are a number of existing schemes people can avail of such as illness benefit or disability allowance. Some people are perhaps able to work but due to their …

In fairness to most employers, generally they try to be flexible because my attitude has always been, if you give a little you usually get far more back. Partial capacity payment should perhaps be promoted more; I accept that. To be fair to the Department of Social Protection, it is good at telling people the options available to them when it replies to them. We will make sure they are aware of the partial capacity payment. It can be paid for a longer period of up to three years, so they should look into it.

The Government acknowledges the valuable role family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the programme for Government and the national carers’ strategy. My Department provides a comprehensive package of carers’ income supports including carer’s allowance, carer’s benefit, domiciliary care allowance and the carer’s support grant. Combined spending on all these payments to carers in 2024 is expected to exceed €1.7 billion. The carer’s allowance i…

It has been increased over the years. It started at ten hours, then went to 15 hours and the most recent increase was to 18.5 hours. We need to strike a balance here because a person needs to provide full-time care and attention and when that 18.5 hours is added to the 34 or 35 hours of care that must be provided, that is a good few hours. There are a lot of things I would like to do in this budget for carers but I will have to prioritise. That is the reality of the budget process. Increasing the income disregards …

I increased the income disregards in the last budget and I always look at everything. I have taken a number of steps in recent budgets. In November, a €400 lump sum was paid to people who receive the carer's support grant. A Christmas bonus of a double payment was paid to people who are in receipt of carer's allowance and carer's benefit. I have increased the domiciliary care allowance in successive budgets. It is now €340 per month. It is important to say the domiciliary care allowance is not means tested and goes…

A person has to be caring for 35 hours to qualify for the carer's allowance. He or she is allowed to work for 18.5 hours, so that brings it up to 53.5 hours per week. That is a fair week's work, in fairness, when both are done. The Deputy made a point and I do not disagree with him. Sometimes discretion can be great and then sometimes it can land you into a lot of bother, depending on who is interpreting the discretion. I will ask my officials to look into the issue. I always welcome ideas that make things better f…