My question to the Minister is to ask his views on whether there is a need to enhance the community use of the playing pitches at Cathal Brugha Barracks.

I thank the Minister. It is great to hear his own personal commitment to this advancement in addition to the Department. I wish to highlight our gratitude to the Department for the good faith negotiations they are having with Ranelagh Gaels and Portobello GAA, and for the years of community supports that the Defence Forces and the Department have offered up to the area. As the Minister said, it is about the long-term facilities there. Ranelagh Gaels is a club that started when I left school, although I might have b…

This is very welcome. I am sure the club will be delighted to hear all of the Tánaiste's contributions to this debate. As he said, this shows in a positive way how the Defence Forces and barracks can become integrated in an urban community. The best way in which Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines can be integrated in the community is through the level of support the barracks has always shown the two GAA clubs operating in the area. Demonstrating this investment in the future will make a massive difference to so ma…

I thank the Ukrainian ambassador and the delegation for attending today. Three years ago, Irish people looked on in horror at what was taking place in Ukraine. In different ways we tried to respond to the challenges faced by the Ukrainian people. In a symbolic gesture, Dublin City Council of which I was a member initiated a process that ultimately twinned Kyiv with Dublin. More recently, when I was Lord Mayor of Dublin, we opened up the house to celebrate Ukrainian independence day. In much more than symbolic terms…

I thank the Ministers of State for being in attendance. I wish them both well in their briefs. I also wish the Minister, Deputy Foley, well in her brief. One of the things I urge all three of them to do is to listen to parents of disabled children, engage with parent support groups in every constituency and listen to their lived experience. One of the big issues we see throughout the country is that what the CDNT service says it is delivering and how the parents of the children receiving those services feel they ar…

I congratulate you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, on your election. While I congratulated her in her absence, I also congratulate the Minister on her appointment. When does she intend to implement the programme for Government commitment to extend the national childcare scheme to childminders working in the family home with sensible regulations that fit home-based care?

I am disappointed in the reply that the officials have written for the Minister. It is the same as a written reply I got to a parliamentary question on this specific issue. The reality is that the childminding services regulations do not apply to the care of a child by what the Department terms as a nanny or an au pair, but what normal people term as childminders working in the family home. This is a new policy that is in the programme for Government. It is brand new and did not exist in the past five years. The pr…

Does the Minister accept that the wording she has read out and which her officials have supplied to her directly conflicts with the commitment in the programme for Government to extend the national childcare scheme to childminders who work in the family home? We all understand the current legal position and the current status quo . The Minister was part of the negotiation of the programme for Government. It is contained in the programme for Government and is a new policy. Unless she can point me to language in the …

I thank the Minister of State and wish him well in his new brief. The context of this discussion about an accommodation levy in Dublin is really straightforward. It relates to the funding of the recommendations of the Dublin city task force. The task force identified that the capital costs to fulfil those recommendations would be between €750 million and €1 billion and that the ongoing operational expenditure would be €150 million. It is stated in the report that there are a number of ways in which the operational …

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The introduction of any new tax or levy will never be a popular initiative. I fully acknowledge that if the Government took a decision that the way in which the recommendations of the Dublin city task force were to be funded is through the introduction of an accommodation levy, the Department and the line Minister would have a huge role in engaging with the hotel sector and the tourism sector on such a proposal. However, I think we could get buy-in from that sector. I kn…

I welcome the Minister of State to her new role. Having witnessed her handling of RTÉ, her response to the AI revolution will be child's play in comparison to the challenges she faced as Chair of that committee. I welcome her appointment to this post and it is a very good decision by the Government to have a Minister of State dedicated to this important issue. I welcome this debate on how we can harness AI for the greater good in business, the economy and society. Let us be clear: this is not a speculative conversa…

The events on South Anne Street late on Saturday night were some of the worst and most shocking scenes we have seen in our city since the Dublin riots. As the Taoiseach said, we are all thinking of the family of the victim and of the victims who were subjected to the violent attacks that took place in Stoneybatter. The pretext for the Dublin city centre task force established by the Tánaiste was safety in our city. It was a recognition and a reflection that increased numbers of gardaí in our city centre alone will …

GeoDirectory data recorded by The Irish Times identified 14,500 derelict buildings in Dublin city. As the Taoiseach knows, in the programme for Government we have committed to implementing the recommendations of the Dublin city task force. The only way in which that task force can work is if it is fully funded. I acknowledge from replies given by the Tánaiste last Thursday that the interdepartmental group met on four occasions, including as recently as last Tuesday. There is, however, a big change that could be mad…

As this is the first time I have spoken in the Dáil, I want to thank the constituents of Dublin Bay South and my family and friends for getting me here. The programme for Government contains a very clear commitment that the city centre task force report for Dublin will be implemented in full. Does the Tánaiste agree that we cannot police our way out of problems in Dublin city? We need to deliver a liveable city and give people reasons to come into the city centre. When does the Tánaiste expect the interdepartmental…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, for his kind remarks. I wish him well in his new role as Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs. I commend each of the negotiators in the three groupings of Fine Gael, which is my own party, Fianna Fáil and the regional Independents for coming together and developing this programme for Government. It is an ambitious programme focused on delivery. In particular, I want to highlight the package of supports for small and medium-sized businesses, including…