I thank the Whip's office for giving me this time. I am thinking about the media consultant at my school gate who cannot get a 20-hour consultancy contract because she can only work until 2:30 p.m. when 5:30 p.m. is the corporate norm, and she cannot seem to disrupt that. I keep telling her that if she does not tell them that time, she will be fine, but she cannot get back to work. That is a labour market activation issue. I am thinking about the in-house lawyer in a corporate doing the exact same job as her collea…

I would like to ask the Minister about the opportunity to roll out programmes in higher education for students with intellectual disability, recognising only 1% of people with intellectual disability have the opportunity to go to university and I would like a statement on progress.

I thank the Minister for meeting representatives of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities. University is not for every person, with or without an intellectual disability, but it should be an option. It gives dignity to have a student card, be able to be on the frisbee team, or whatever it is a young person chooses, and be properly included and given the confidence. I met a young man who is a graduate of the centre last weekend and now has a full-time permanent position in a commercial firm in…

I could not agree more with the Minister. The point he made about regression is especially appropriate. I recall one graduate from the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities who did not have a job to go to and went back to a day care facility. By the time of her graduation, she did not have the confidence to stand up from her seat to go to get her certificate. That is the scale of regression. We need to work with Irish business which has been so responsive to this. It is inclusive for everybody wo…

I will speak about two matters, the overall macroeconomic situation and the carer's allowance. I greatly welcome the budget at this time. I see it as a stability and transition budget away from the €48 billion we have had to spend to support the economy, individuals and businesses through the Covid pandemic into a period, now, of a real economic recovery and stability for our people and communities and in our public finances. All those are inextricably linked. We hope the inflationary pressures we are experiencing …

How much time do I have? Is it five minutes?

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important strategy. Youth justice is something I have worked on for more than 15 years. In 2007, Emer Meehan and I published The Children Court: A National Study on behalf of the Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development. In it, we profiled the young people who were before the Children Court. I raise the 2007 study because it is the same 7% or 8% of children today who we know are most likely to become serious offenders. They are also the children most a…

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply to Deputy Duncan Smith earlier on the maternity question. He mentioned nightclubs, and of course tonight 450 people will be able to go to the Button Factory nightclub. They will have to show proof of vaccination and do an antigen test. There will be CO2 monitoring and good ventilation but no social distancing. Maybe there will be a pregnant lady there with her partner. I hope they have a good time, especially if it is their first baby. They can go to the Button Factory tonight but…

I think I am sharing time with------

Okay. I acknowledge and thank the emergency consular aid team, made up of Irish diplomats and the Army Ranger Wing, who travelled to Afghanistan in the initial days of conflict, a little over a month ago. The contribution they made in getting Irish citizens and their families out safely was crucial. I have parliamentary questions in with the Minister about family reunification and humanitarian visas. I am a patron, as are some other Deputies, of Front Line Defenders and I know they have requested additional support…

I will use my time to discuss the most urgent issue, that of activating consented land, but, listening in my office to the speakers from Sinn Féin discussing how rubbish the Government's Housing for All plan is, I was minded to again pick up that party's submission to the Housing for All document from June of this year. It is a few short pages long. There are seven pages of text with just one dollar or euro figure in it. Meanwhile, the Housing for All plan is comprehensive, fully costed and extremely detailed, as o…

I am pleased to speak on this, as part of the overall reform of policing in Ireland, which is an important programme of modernisation. My first point is on the geographical challenge and the communications around it. Clearly, the new divisional structure envisaged is different in the Dublin area to the Galway and Mayo areas. I reflect on colleagues working in constituencies such as County Mayo and the sheer size and scale to look after, as a Deputy. An Garda Síochána is looking after it on a divisional basis, and t…

Today, 35 female Members of the Oireachtas are signing a letter to Paul Reid and the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, in respect of restoring the access to all maternity units and maternity services that existed pre pandemic. We will keep the Tánaiste up to date on progress because it is something he has supported. Linked to that are the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality, which were agreed, after a year's work, on 24 April. I am very pleased that the Ceann Comhairle and the Business …

My question has two parts, the first of which is to ask what tax or other incentive measures are being considered to sit alongside the proposal to have a right to work remotely. Recognising how many financial services firms moved following Brexit, the second part has to do with the impact on them of changing OECD guidance on permanent establishment and tax treatment if some of their employees have moved back to Britain or elsewhere.

I thank the Minister. I know he is considering these matters in the round for the budget, and we are raising them in that spirit. There is an opportunity to enhance people's lives by continuing remote working, which can reduce costs for employers and free up property, particularly in city centres, for repurposing for residential use, which would be attractive. In terms of employment and taxes accruing, Ireland has benefited considerably from the relocation of financial services firms. Under regulatory requirements,…

I wish to put on notice that in addition, the women of the Oireachtas have agreed to bring this up at every opportunity until it is agreed. We brought it up at the Committee on Public Accounts last week, during Questions on Promised Legislation today and again this evening. We will bring it up every day.

As I know the Minister of State is deeply aware, Carmona is not a school as such. I want to thank her for her constant engagement, good faith and commitment to this issue, including coming out and meeting people. She has been exceptional on the issue. However, on behalf of the parents, I want to put on the record of the House that Carmona is not a school but a centre of excellence for children with severe to profound intellectual disability. I have spoken to parents today, with whom the Minister of State has intera…

I thank the Minister of State for her response. I have a list of our back and forth, which shows quite how engaged she is. I acknowledge what she said about the assessment of services. She will also understand that at this stage the parents do not care why it was assessed wrongly. They do not have the therapists they need. They will not care about Excel. I have dealt with the HSE and I have heard about Excel spreadsheets previously. My question back to the HSE is why this did not raise questions for them. Why is it…

My question concerns a two-year-old boy in Cork who came to my attention because of an initiative I am doing around the cost of having children in long-term hospital care. The boy's urethra is in the wrong place and I cannot understand what the delay is in providing surgical treatment for him. May I come back in, a Cheann Comhairle, after the Minister has responded?

May I make on comment, a Cheann Comhairle?