I thank Senator Carrigy for raising this question and for his work as Chairman of the autism committee. I had the good fortune to be able to work closely with him on that committee. It was a real privilege to be able to be engaged in that work. I thank the Senator for his commitment to it and his work in this area. To answer his question very directly, as the Senator is aware, six special classes opened in County Longford in this academic year. I am trying to confirm the figures for the previous years. That brings …

I thank Senator Clonan for raising this important issue. Senator Clonan knows there is probably no issue closer to my heart than the experience of children in hospital in Ireland and I am glad to have the opportunity to provide the answer I have been given by the Department to the Senator. First, in respect of the experience of the children, additional needs, whether they be medical, personal, intellectual or whatever they may be, makes growing up much more difficult. That and their dignity throughout the hospital …

Perhaps I will not comment on the capacity of the surgeons or indeed the current management team. I will say that in my experience, the longer I am a public representative and engage with the hospital system, the more I know about the value of management processes in delivering for patients, for example in the reduction of some waiting lists. Although some hospitals do not seem to have difficulties with emergency departments, others have very considerable difficulties. The different management processes in healthca…

On behalf of the Minister for Health, I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising the matter. I hope I can provide some clarity, although I am not sure if I can provide all the Senator seeks. I will try to come back to the Senator on anything that I cannot clarify. The Health Service Executive provides an extensive range of aids and appliances to individuals living with different medical conditions to help them enjoy a greater quality of life than may otherwise be the case. Many of those products are provided under the …

That is also my reading of it, but I am at 96% and I like to be at 102%. That is my gap but that is also my read of that reply. I would like the opportunity, however, to go back to the Department, to clarify for the Senator so that we can get to 102%.

I thank Deputy O'Connor. I would like to confirm what is the ask specifically.

I understand. I will pass that information on to the Minister. I just was not clear exactly what the ask was. Following Government permission to do so, earlier today, the Minister announced a significant review of the school transport scheme, which is important. It is very important with regard to this question specifically for the town. Deputy O'Connor is correct that the contractor was a private contractor and, as such, it was not operated by Bus Éireann as part of the school transport scheme. Bus Éireann has adv…

I might suggest that the Deputy take that up directly with the Minister in the parliamentary party meeting to place priority on it.

It is for the Minister for Education to make such a determination. The review of the school transport scheme has been going on for a long time. It commenced in February 2021 and was conducted over three phases. I am told that work will begin on planning for a reduction in the distance criteria that the Deputy highlighted from 2025 to 2026, so there is still a way to go. That work is very important, although it will not be of much assistance to the children who need to get to school tomorrow. As to whether the Depar…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is an important issue for everyone in the House and the people we represent. A key focus of the Sláintecare reform programme is recognising, facilitating and enabling older people to age well at home and in their communities for as long as possible. Therefore, improving access to home support is a priority for the Government. Since budget 2021, we have provided approximately €230 million in additional funding for that service. The preliminary data indicates that more than 22 mill…

I agree with the Deputy. It is important to highlight that notwithstanding that this is the highest number in all the different regions, we are still not meeting the need. While we recognise that there are recruitment challenges, both for the public and private sector, the emphasis on management of resources and management from the perspective of the user is still very important. An hour a week appears to me to be a grossly undermet need. I stood in a constituent's house this week, looking at the care schedule for …

I appreciate Deputy Tully raising this important issue on the practicality of the new return scheme and how it will work for everybody, and where there are difficulties, how they will be addressed and fixed. This scheme has obviously been in development for a number of years. To inform the design of the scheme, the Department undertook two public consultations in 2020 and 2021 on how it should operate. Since its appointment as the DRS operator in July 2022, Re-Turn has consulted widely with stakeholders to help pre…

It seems obvious.

The Deputy must forgive me that I do not have more detailed information on the consultation that took place in advance of this scheme being introduced. It would appear to me to be a totally obvious and natural thing to consult disability groups. That may have happened. I cannot answer regarding the number that are accessible, but there are more than 2,300 return points operational from 1 February. The vast majority of those are automated collection. There are almost 2,200 of them. Some retailers have opted for a ma…

And in Cualanor.

Exactly.

It was a case of spend, spend, spend.

I am very glad to have the opportunity to speak on this Bill and possibly on the one later on the proposed amendment to the Constitution on families, gender and care. I was very proud to be part of the Oireachtas committee which took on the work of the citizens' assembly. I first of all want to thank all of the citizens who contributed to that excellent piece of work and who gave up their time through Covid. I have met a number of them subsequently as part of the committee and I know that they also got a lot from t…

It is exciting to tease it out and determine what we mean and do not mean.

I wish to address some of the points made today on the two amendments. On the Article 41 change, on the broadest equality guarantee, I always believed it was wrong to narrow down equalities. You cannot pick and choose your equalities. The broadest possible equality guarantee seemed to me to be the most obvious and important thing to have and retain exactly as it is. I was glad to hear speakers such as Deputy Bríd Smith refer to the questions of doubling down and not removing women. It is very important to state the…