This is very important. The issue has been going on since the boy was born. I raised it with the Department in March after meeting the family for the first time. I have seen very different experiences in regard to surgical emergencies in Crumlin hospital. The decision in this boy's case cannot be about waiting lists. I have brought a child in with septic arthritis, which is an orthopaedic emergency, and surgery took place four hours later, at 11 a.m. on a Sunday morning. In this instance, there is a child with his …

I thank the Minister for bringing forward this legislation. It is always difficult to bring in legislation of this kind or, indeed, any tax legislation. As my colleague, Deputy Bruton, said, there is never a good time to do this. Recognising the changes the Minister has made to the bands, rates and so on, the difficulty taxpayers in my area of Dún Laoghaire are going to face will be in the context of revaluations. It is completely understandable that there be a revaluation from 2013 values. At that time, the State …

Is Deputy Ó Broin not here to take Question No. 9?

Sinn Féin is still on a break, perhaps.

My question is about the Minister's engagement with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in respect of vacant homes. Only 29 vacant properties have been brought back into use in the area through the various schemes introduced over the last three or four years. Is there a particular difficulty in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council area in comparison with comparable councils such as Fingal County Council, Galway City Council and so on? I am interested in hearing the Minister of State's response.

I thank the Minister of State. That is encouraging news at a national level. I am concerned about the Dún Laoghaire area because there is a finite amount of space for new builds. The area is bordered by the sea and is already densely populated. We have a challenge, with a sports-mad population, to find green space for children to play. In that context, we really depend on using existing stock efficiently and well. The very helpful vacant homes website that Mayo County Council set up identifies that in May of this y…

I really appreciate that. As the Minister of State said, this is important on a number of fronts. First, it helps to meet a housing need for different types of family units who need different types of space. Second, it helps to revitalise our towns and increase footfall on the streets. This is not just relevant in the Dún Laoghaire, George's Street area but is such an obvious area to try to target. Third, from a climate perspective it is far more beneficial to intelligently and efficiently use existing stock rather…

I want to raise the massive elephant in the room relating to the national maternity hospital. I refer to the settlement of a case this week concerning the death of the baby of a couple, which I raise with the permission of their solicitor, on the basis of exceptionally poor clinical judgment, erroneous advice and exceptionally poor risk management by the hospital. It conceded liability in full at 3.55 p.m. yesterday, with nobody there from the hospital to pay any respect to the couple or give any serious apology. E…

As we see light now at the end of the post-pandemic tunnel, we have all learned different ways of working. Will the Tánaiste update the House on progress to secure remote working for the future or the option of partial remote working for employees for the future? What steps have been taken to try to advance remote working hubs around the country? There is a big opportunity in my town of Dún Laoghaire in this regard and I am very interested to hear the Tánaiste's progress on this so far.

I thank the Tánaiste. This is great progress. It is not just about rural communities. In my town of Dún Laoghaire, 140,000 people live within ten minutes of a major urban town in the greater Dublin area, 34% of whom are under 30 and want to be in businesses driven by innovation and knowledge. George's Street, which is the main street, is 1.2 km long and has 264 shopfronts, many of which have been vacant for a very long time. There is an opportunity for the people of Dún Laoghaire to be able to work in jobs that hav…

I thank the Tánaiste. Again, I appreciate his response and I go back to the climate imperative on using the structures we have, and there is a big opportunity to do so. The Tánaiste is absolutely right that we will have concrete retail spaces and new businesses, and we already see this coming into Dún Laoghaire and it is very exciting. We still have all of this vacancy and over the shop vacancy. We had the living city initiative in the past and it ran into difficulties with fire exits and additional insurance with …

The issue of citizenship is very important to people, particularly post Brexit. I am aware that the Department of Justice has made very good progress this year with applications but that is set against a very considerable backlog. Substantial work remains to be done and I ask the Minister to outline the situation in the Department, including what is being done to address some of the procedural and communication difficulties that people are facing in the process.

That would be welcome because people are worried about, for example, sending in their passport, particularly when the quality of communication, not from the Minister of State but from the Department, is sometimes opaque about what is being sought. I have complaints from people who say there is nobody to talk to, there is only a generic email address and they do not necessarily get a response. I have four cases of people who are married to Irish citizens and have Irish kids. One lady was married to an Irish citizen …

Deputy Richmond raises the question of fast-track citizenship for those working on the front line. I understand the difficulty in prioritising one employment group over another within that process. There is another way of looking at it, as set out in a letter sent to the Government and to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, by 50 consultants from Beaumont Hospital on how front-line workers are being treated. It is about the stamp 4 system and how one can acquire stamp 4 status. This is for eligibility…

I am asking questions on behalf of Deputies Creed and Griffin. I believe they communicated this at an earlier stage. I can do so after Deputy Conway-Walsh.

My apologies.

I welcome the Minister's reply to Question No. 132. This question is somewhat linked in that it concerns the commitment in the programme for Government to increase diversity in An Garda Síochána by recruiting and retaining members who represent more diverse and minority backgrounds.

I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive response. I am conscious that she and I are speaking as members of a minority in this Parliament but very much as privileged people in terms of gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity and expression. It is great that we are having a conversation about this important issue. It is not in any sense a side issue but, rather, an issue of core importance to how we reflect and protect everybody in our society. It is very important that this conversation is led by the pe…

As the Minister of State will know, Fine Gael is placing a very strong emphasis on what we can do to support better integration and intercultural understanding. Fine Gael has within its membership an intercultural integration group and we are trying to listen and ensure it is led by people who are impacted by barriers. I urge that with the conversation on An Garda Síochána, the discussion is led by people who have been impacted by discrimination and by barriers rather than an assumption that it is sufficient to tal…

I acknowledge the additional supports provided this week to the 225,000 businesses that are the backbone of our economy. They generate employment and tax revenue, on which the provision of State services is based. In particular, I thank the Tánaiste for the business resumption support scheme, BRSS, which I hope will capture the small number of businesses that have been left out of the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, or the Tánaiste's own scheme for technical reasons. The BRSS is designed in part to support…