I have spoken about this before. Diverting our young people away from getting involved in criminal activity is a key priority for me. I am a fan of prevention and looking at ways of offering better alternatives to young people before they end up in the system. I have worked with a lot of Carlow services and can only say that they do a marvellous job. They work hard. Unfortunately, there are crime rates among our young people and we can change that. We can work and invest in communities, outreach, drug programmes an…

Deputy Martin Browne has requested two minutes to speak because Deputy McDonald will take his slot.

Deputies Paul Murphy and Mick Barry are sharing time.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and thank the Minister. I am delighted with his commitment to resolve the pay for retained firefighters. I met a lot of Carlow firefighters. Urgency is the important thing here. I have written to all Departments over recent weeks because children are on their phones constantly and so their heads are now being bent. We are seeing an awful lot of poor posture. Even if posture has been a problem for years, there is a way to prevent the problem. This will cost the State no money. That is goo…

Yes, the bags.

I believe I am next.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I also thank the Minister of State. This legislation is so important. I was in a shopping centre recently and I was struck by the queue outside a vape station. It was mostly young people. I was shocked because when vapes were first introduced they were to assist those wishing to quit cigarette smoking. Now, however, we are hearing from doctors about the harm vaping is causing to young people's health and to the environment. Sweet-flavoured, disposable vapes are getting children hooked o…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

I thank the Minister of State. Like previous speakers, I was one of the first to welcome the Bill to outlaw the grooming of children into crime in 2021. "Fagin's law", as we called it, was a key piece of legislation for Fianna Fáil when we were in opposition, of which I was fully supportive then. Diverting young people from involvement in criminal activity is a key priority for me. The exploitation of young people and children is particularly concerning. People are preying on the vulnerable and it has to stop. It i…

Last month, I attended the launch of a moving memoir, Everything , written by my friend Kathleen Chada, who is an absolutely remarkable woman. As the Taoiseach is aware, the Department of Justice commissioned an independent study on familicide and domestic homicide reviews, and its report was brought to the Cabinet today. Those impacted await the publication of the report. Kathleen Chada and other members of Sentencing and Victim Equality, SAVE, submitted repeatedly to the study. It is a bit disappointing that it h…

A few months ago, I attended a meeting with the Minister and Carlow County Council. We spoke about a community hub in Carlow on the Tullow Road. I raise this tonight because the organisation that will be the main tenant in the hub, Carlow Regional Youth Services, receives €130,000 in annual funding from Tusla to provide a range of services to children and young people in the area. There is also need for childcare facilities but this seems to be falling between three stools or Departments, namely, the Departments of…

I am asking this question on behalf of Deputy Niamh Smyth. What steps are the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and her Department taking to improve the monitoring and oversight of disability services? Are there plans to introduce a statutory authority to audit disability standards? Will she make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister of State. While I welcome her statement and am aware of how she works with all the various bodies, including HIQA, we are hitting a crisis. If we consider the pay and conditions in section 39 organisations, we will see what they are causing in the various departments. In addition to considering pay and conditions, we need to consider recruitment. I wish to refer to a certain case I have been dealing with. I thank the Minister of State for her work on it. She and the Department of Health have al…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this important issue. We were all delighted with the South East Technological University, SETU, strategy plan, which was launched this month. St. Patrick's in Carlow, which is the other college involved, is the second oldest third level institution in Ireland and a leader in education. The future is bright in the south east, particularly for Carlow-Kilkenny, but as the Minister of State can tell, we need to consider student accommodation in County Carlow. Wha…

I thank the Minister of State. That is very welcome information, in particular that a dedicated student accommodation unit has been established to develop and implement the policy along with the Higher Education Authority. I very much welcome that. The bigger issue for me is that the Minister of State outlined there is a need for 700 accommodation units for Carlow and 700 units for Waterford. That is most welcome. I am delighted to see the progress that has been achieved. However, we need to have more information o…

I thank the Minister of State.

It is important that when we address a Topical Issue, the Minister in question is here to address it. It is very important. I am very respectful that the Minister of State is here but I would have to say that I am concerned. I was contacted by a number of constituents from the constituency both the Minister of State and I represent, namely, Carlow-Kilkenny. Some of them are retained firefighters while others are members of the Garda or paramedics. There are significant concerns regarding conditions, pay rates and p…

While I welcome the Minister of State's response, I firmly believe we will hit a crisis across all the emergency services. While I welcome that people are living longer, and we are all glad about this, the cost of living is a significant factor. Everybody has mortgages and a lot more outgoings, which we see daily in our clinics. We are not able to recruit in certain areas. I go back to the retained firefighters, whom I have been meeting a lot recently. I spoke to a man with a part-time job who was offered a job wit…

I totally agree with Deputy Connolly. The extension of this Act will allow the hospitality sector to continue to provide outdoor dining seating areas. We must all do what we can to support our hospitality industry, especially after what we saw happen with Covid-19. I was delighted to see the Planning and Development (Street Furniture Fees) Regulations 2023 signed this week, which will provide for the waiver of the street furniture licence fee for "Tables and chairs outside a hotel, restaurant, public house or other…

Yes.