I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. I am here on behalf of the Department of Education today, but it is an area in which I have a very deep personal interest. I thank the Senator for setting it out so clearly. The Department of Education wanted me to highlight that the role of NEPS has evolved and changed over the years, and the service provides a broad range of supports to schools. As the Senator pointed out, the opportunity for equality of access to those services is among the most important ch…

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. He is correct that early intervention across any stream, whether it is learning or psychological support, can genuinely make a difference, not just to how well children develop in those areas but to their well-being, the management of their anxiety and their mental health at every stage throughout that process and also their inclusion within the school. Too many children have found themselves excluded for want of better and earlier interventions in different ways. NEPS w…

I thank the Senator for her questions on this important issue for local authorities and the apprenticeship programme. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, who cannot be here. As the Senator is aware, a key commitment in the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 is to grow the number of apprenticeship registrations across the public service, including local authorities, as the Senator highlighted, to 750 annually by 20…

It is very important that the Senator should do so. These matters must be supervised and overseen and it is important to provide an update. The requirement to give an update always focuses the minds of civil servants in ensuring targets are reached. Not every target can be reached but a failure to do so must be explained and there must be a clear pathway to meeting it. The response from the Department is focused very much on the professional side, including cybersecurity, accounting and so on. Those gaps are there …

I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for raising this Topical Issue matter and I apologise for being here on behalf of the Department of Health. By raising this matter, the Deputy gave me the opportunity and impetus to spend more time reading about Dr. Kathleen Lynn. I am glad I had that opportunity to learn more about this extraordinary woman who was a suffragette, a woman of Mayo, after my own heart, a professional woman, a woman Deputy, and a paediatric medic. There is nothing not to like and I have been encouraged to lear…

I would certainly love to see the hospital named after a strong, professional, capable woman. That would be wonderful. We have so many things named after men in every walk of life. I do not pretend to be qualified enough or to know enough to be able to assess Dr. Lynn's position in this relative to the other medics who might be in contention. When the hospital is opened I would love to see it named after a strong woman. It seems to me, however, that when the Deputy asks a question regarding the process he should be…

I thank the Deputy. This is an issue he has raised many times. I am glad to speak to him about it. When we consider that part of the country, there is a capacity for development, as the Deputy said, and not only because of the IDA site. There is a strategic opportunity for that part of the country having regard to offshore wind, for example, and the transport of turbines from Rosslare Port and other ports along the south coast to the south west, where our most extraordinary strategic advantage as an island nation h…

I thank the Deputy for outlining the strategic benefits of this project. I work with the IDA in my role as the Minister of State with responsibility for financial services. I have a very strong interest in making sure sites are available and ready throughout the island. The Ireland for finance strategy has a very strong regional focus and it is very important to me that suitable sites are available. It would be a matter of embarrassment to bring somebody to a green field with no road. I certainly hope that will not…

I thank Deputy Durkan for bringing this matter and the condition of the road to the House's attention. The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority in accordance with the Roads Act 1993, as amended. Works on those roads are funded from councils' own resources supplemented by State road grants, where applicable. I am told that the maintenance of the rampart road from Ballagh to Timahoe in County Kildare is, therefore, the direct responsibility of…

As the Department of Transport has asked me to set out, Kildare County Council is the statutory authority responsible for the Ballagh-to-Timahoe road, as the Deputy will be aware. However, the Department also says that it will advise the council of the Deputy's concerns about the condition of this road, though I suspect that the Deputy has managed to bring those concerns to Kildare County Council by his own good office. As for the question of managing roads over peat, I did not give the Deputy this additional detai…

I thank the Deputy.

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter of giving consideration to keeping the Aungier Street campus in public ownership and the lack of public facilities in the area. On the question of the Aungier Street campus, the property is currently fully in the ownership of Technological University, TU, Dublin. Under the terms of the Grangegorman Development Agency Act 2005, both TU Dublin and the Grangegorman Development Agency, GDA, are together responsible for the disposal of assets, including the Aungier Street proper…

I agree with the Deputy in every respect. I would highlight the great work done by the north-east inner city working group which attempted to do much of what the Deputy advocates on the north side of the city. I agree that historically, the Liberties area has not had the same focus and is particularly deprived of playing facilities. I have done a lot of work with Mr. Eddie D'Arcy of the Solas Project, based in the Liberties, and am well aware of the challenges with regard to access to playing space. It is one of th…

The provisions contained in the Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Bill 2022 will play a key role in driving positive cultural change in financial services organisations that will benefit consumers, employees and wider society. These provisions are designed to ensure that this change in the financial sector will happen in a way that is both real and enduring. The Bill introduces the individual accountability framework, which comprises: the senior executive accountability regime, SEAR; conduct standa…

I will try to address the points raised by the Senators as best I can. Senator Lombard is correct to raise access to cash points. He will have heard me speak forcefully on the radio that morning about Castletownbere in particular and the impact that would have. As Minister of State with responsibility for financial institutions, credit unions, and insurance, one of the things I am very committed to doing is going to communities where there has been an exit by retail banks to speak with chambers of commerce and othe…

There have to be fair procedures at every stage. I want to go through some of the engagement that was correctly highlighted with the committee at an earlier stage. The fair procedures have to work both ways. For example, there is the six-year rule highlighted by Senator Black and the look-back in regard to fitness and probity. The reason that is being introduced is that there was a concern that a person who had reason to believe they would be the subject of a fitness and probity investigation could prevent the inve…

I thank Deputies for the points they raised. I will try to address as many of them as I can. I do not necessarily agree with all the points made but I do see coherent trends among them, including a real and genuine concern around inflation and increasing house prices, and the targeting of supports most effectively. I will try to address all of those concerns. As the Minister for Finance said earlier, the debate is happening in the context of a significant inflationary environment, albeit 2% lower than it was last y…

It is extraordinary that he can laugh away that amount of money.

What is even more interesting------

I am sorry?