I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to highlight the need for a primary care centre in Tullow. We have applied for three primary care centres and there has not been an update on any of them since. The first is a primary care centre in Tullow. We also applied for an injury clinic in Carlow and a primary care centre in Borris. There is a need for these centres given the growth in Carlow's population and the ageing population. Injury clinic and primary care centres are also needed to alleviate pressure o…

Yes. We will have to call it that, a Cheann Comhairle. If there was a minor injury clinic in every town, it would take the pressure off all the accident and emergency departments and reduce the hours people must wait just to get an X-ray. We have a fabulous X-ray department in Carlow but it is only open part time. It is based in St. Dympna's Hospital. It is an excellent facility. I am looking for it to be opened five days a week because of the pressure on the accident and emergency department in Kilkenny. I complim…

I want to welcome this. It is important. I welcome the review. No offence, but I will fight twice as hard for Carlow now. The Minister of State mentioned Waterford. In fairness, the Ceann Comhairle always says to me, "Carlow, Carlow, Carlow", but as a passionate lady who is honoured to work for the people of Carlow-Kilkenny, I firmly believe that an injury clinic would be important for us. We also need clinics in Tullow, Hacketstown, Rathvilly and Borris because, given the population growth, we need to have these s…

Headline figures from the Labour Court recommendation suggest an increase of between 24% and 32% in the annual €8,000 retained firefighters payment. It is a long way off a fixed or fair wage. I understand there are also ten recommendations to be examined by SIPTU and the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA. I had several phone calls this morning to my office about this. Retained firefighters need significant improvements in working arrangements to address what they call a recruitment and retention crisis. I kn…

I thank the Minister of State for attending. Carlow is one of the fastest growing counties in Leinster according to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures. Although Carlow town now has more people living in it than has Kilkenny city, we have no hospital. Earlier this year, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, came to Carlow and saw the pressure on our out-of-hours service and the limited use of a perfectly good X-ray facility in St. Dympna's Hospital. We need an injury clinic in Carlow to make use of the goo…

I know the Minister of State will go back to the Minister. As I said, I have had him in Carlow, we met different groups and given our population growth an injury clinic has to be part of the plan going forward. The Minister of State said an implementation plan for the recommendations from the review is now being developed and areas such as Carlow will be considered as part of the implementation plan. What is the timescale on this and is there a date? The good people of Carlow are so lucky to have a hospital as good…

Carlow children's disability network team is in crisis. There are families getting YouTube tutorials. I know of one family that is in urgent need of therapies and essential medical equipment. South East Community Healthcare has secured some funding to tackle enormous waiting lists, but in many cases it is working on refusals from a good few years ago. There are preschool children who are entering school in September with no assessment. There are only 48 special classes between primary and secondary school in County…

I welcome the news today that the Minister will be commencing an independent, root-and-branch examination of RTÉ and a review of contractor fees, including for those on short-term employment contracts and whether any of the existing recruitment and HR practices have an impact on equality and opportunity. The only thing we can say is that our trust in our public service television and radio station has broken. Many people working there have been hurt by the revelations, hearing about deals that were not available to…

I agree with previous speakers. We are living in a diverse society. The issue I am raising is one that is common to all schools. We are living with people, going to schools and telling them we are cutting class sizes, yet I know of a school that is going to lose a teacher. More than 20 students are going to be put into classes around the school. It does not make sense. I want to raise another issue because I have to leave. In the past three weeks, I have met with different schools about DEIS status. There is DEIS 1…

I had to get it in.

Yes.

As we know, over the course of the two-day European Council summit in Brussels this week, the EU leaders will discuss Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and continued EU support to Ukraine as well as the economy, security, defence, migration and external relations. We have had many challenges in the last year or two years. Communication and information will be key at this summit. Information is important, in particular in regard to migration and what Ireland has to do to the best of its ability. We need to …

Deputy Leddin can take as long as he wants.

I want also to talk on this subject today, and I am sure the Minister of State will be aware of the concerns I have. I am sure he has heard them as well, being a Deputy from my constituency. I will discuss water quality. I recently visited someone in the hospital in Kilkenny. Ninety per cent of the time I was there, the patients were getting bottled water. I do not know whether it is because of Covid, health and safety or a water issue. I have not heard anything about it. This is happening at a time when we are try…

Has the Minister had any engagement or correspondence with the Minister for Justice or her Department on issues concerning the pensions of post-1995 prison officers, and will he make a statement on the matter?

The issue of retirement age and supplementary pension for prison officers is very important to me. As the Minister knows, the pensions of post-1995 prison officers are integrated with the contributory State pension. Pensions of members recruited on or after April 1995 comprise two elements, those being, a partial pension paid by the employer and the contributory State pension. The Prison Officers Association recently raised the matter of the supplementary pension at its annual conference, pointing out that there wa…

I thank the Minister. I will provide two examples of where I was contacted about people who had to retire on grounds of age. They were both post-1995 recruits but were treated differently. One prison officer from Dublin attended his welfare office and asked for a letter stating that he was not looking or available for work. He received that letter and forwarded it to the National Shared Services Office, NSSO, and his pension was paid in full without it being necessary to sign on and meet the jobseeker’s allowance c…

I thank the Minister.

In April 2016, I was told that the HSE proposed to deliver a primary care centre in Tullow, including the townlands of Rathvilly and Hacketstown, using its direct build mechanism. The HSE stated that its capital plan would fund the centre. We are seven years on. I have been in contact with the HSE; I am worn out submitting parliamentary questions on the matter. The HSE has told me that it identified a site last year. People in Tullow, Hacketstown and Rathvilly are disappointed because construction at the site has n…

I welcome this debate. I also welcome the launch of the new five-year apprenticeship action plan for 10,000 new apprentice registrations each year by 2025. In his opening statement, the Minister said we are on course to have 9,000 new apprentices. That is important. Many people may not have been aware that there are 67 apprenticeship programmes. That is marvellous. I ask the Minister to provide more information on that and to detail the different programmes. It would be important for us and our constituencies to be…