Specifically on value for money, I want to ask the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, about the planning permission notice that was put in the Irish Independent on 28 September by the Commissioners of Public Works to develop a science museum in Earlsfort Terrace, when there is a perfectly good Explorium in Sandyford that has been in receipt of PUP and EWSS but cannot reopen. It has had visits from over 30,000 children and 700 schools, with 250,000 visitors in its first year up to Covid. I cannot understand the bu…

It is entirely within the area of value for money, which the Minister has referenced.

It is related.

I, too, commend the Minister, Deputy McGrath, on that work. I have a question on the practicalities of the business supports, on which there is a state aid clarification yet to happen. For example, a business in my area, a retail vegetable deli store in my constituency, received a bill for €6,982 for the last 62 days. It had been €1,300 the previous year. He has to pay that within 14 days. Will he be sure he can get some class of refund, and if so, how and when? The practicalities of the business supports offered b…

Sometimes I think we are looking at different budgets. Some €11 billion of a budget is very significant indeed. I remember the days when we were taking figures of €6 billion, and so on, out of the economy. It is a seismic budget. What is the alternative in continuing with existing spending and expanding that, to not doing that? Of course, €7 billion has to be spent doing that, with the remainder to be spent on different measures. The tax measure is of great significance for so many families because we look at this …

I believe Deputy Griffin contacted your office. I do not know whether it is possible to take the question.

Yes, sorry, that is what I mean.

Excuse me; I understand.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for facilitating the question, which I am taking on behalf of Deputy Colm Burke. In fact, I take it on behalf of many people with a strong interest in the answer to this question on inheritance tax thresholds having regard to the progressivity of the income tax and local property tax systems and the rise in house prices. What is the Minister's view on that following this week's commission on taxation report?

I thank the Minister for his response. I sometimes wonder with the reporting of this whether people really understand who is concerned about it and who is bothered by it. It is as if it is all millionaires and billionaires that are somehow going to benefit from this. I keep thinking about a woman just off Johnstown Road in my constituency, who has paid off her mortgage with income after tax. Her husband is a mechanic. She has not had any change in her car since 2007. She has two daughters that she has put through c…

It is an altruistic position because, as the Minister says, what a person is trying to do is make decisions in the best interests perhaps not of themselves but of their children and helping them to plan their lives. As the Minister says, these mortgages are paid off after tax from net income with tax rates extremely high and with no other source of support from the State. It is about being able to give certainty to people at a time of deep uncertainty, which we have had through Covid and that is of unknown duration…

The question of working from home has taken an unexpected, negative turn in recent months with the rise in energy prices, such as for gas and electricity. What is the Minister’s view on that as we enter the winter months?

An interesting point will be interplay between the retention of the deduction and any other changes that Government introduces with regard to energy supports more broadly and how that works out for individuals. It is extraordinary how external events impact behaviour in a collective way, whether it is the change to remote working and how much that has been of benefit to people, particularly families with children of a young age who have been able to be closer to home, which is so helpful. Given the increase in ener…

The Minister is quite right that the State cannot be the first port of call. There is, however, a general supervisory role and level of communication with businesses, in particular, to try to effect a degree of co-ordination that works for their employees. I spoke with one city centre business owner who has a core day on Wednesday. Everybody comes into the office on a Wednesday for the purposes of physically seeing each other and developing relationships and so on. That business also provides for three days per wee…

I thank the Minister for bringing the Bill to the House and for the amount of work she has done in the Seanad on it. It is really important and timely legislation and I commend her for her work. It is legislation that has been needed for some time. It is clear from our own regulation of politics and conversations with parents, schools and other actors, there is a need for regulation of social media. I respect all of the points that have been made about freedom of expression and the right to it. Freedom of expressio…

I will speak as quickly as I can. I wish to highlight the childcare pressures in my constituency. I know of a 41-year-old professional woman who has a four-and-a-half-month-old baby. If she gets a childcare place for her baby in order for her to return to work, it will cost her between €1,200 and €1,300 per month. She is a single mother who gets the one-parent family payment, but that is offset by tax on maternity benefit. The cost of childcare in my constituency is 60% higher than it is in Carlow and 30% higher th…

Caring for a baby is the same no matter where one does it.

It is welcome to work within a budgetary structure in which we have a measured opportunity to reflect on income tax, the current economic position, the challenges the country faces and the necessary and appropriate budgetary responses. I always welcome the process of the summer economic statements and the autumn statements because it shows a State that is thinking, planning and reflecting on the challenges it faces and the information that is coming to it in an open and transparent way. Looking back over the last t…

This is national Traveller Pride Week. There are so many different issues one could raise but a particularly vulnerable group are those Traveller women in prison in Ireland. Traveller women are between 18 and 22 times more likely to be in prison than a non-Traveller woman like me. In the general female prison population, 85% have addiction issues and 60% of sentenced women have mental illness compared with 27% of men. This is compounded by the scourge of short sentences being used by the courts. Some 90% of female …