The management has said there is no employment there.

On behalf of the Independent Group, I wish to begin by extending the apologies of Deputy Thomas Pringle, representative for the Donegal constituency, who cannot be here today to join in the condolences being offered to the people of Creeslough as he is in attendance at the Council of Europe. He asked me to say a few words. This morning, President Higgins spoke with Deputy Pringle and the other members of the delegation about the tragedy that has left the community and, indeed, the whole country stunned with sadness…

The Government had a number of options to alleviate the cost of electricity facing families, older people, people with disabilities, carers, small businesses, etc., but the option it chose was to pay the electricity credit. Other options mentioned included capping the prices charged by energy companies, nationalising those companies trading in Ireland, a windfall tax on energy companies or taking extra dividends from these companies to support people who need it most. These options were not seriously investigated. …

I thank Deputy Pringle and his office for bringing forward this motion for the provision of free and accessible public transport. This is an important motion and I fully support its emphasis on rural areas and greater access for those with disabilities. I also want to approach this issue from the point of view of meeting the targets for CO2 emissions, and the transformation to a green economy. Public transport has a key role to play in that transformation. Due to a criminal lack of planning and investment in public…

I draw the attention of the Minister of State to proposals for a renewed repair and lease scheme that Simon Communities Ireland launched last Thursday. It states that Housing for All has set out low targets for the delivery of properties under the repair and lease scheme with only 130 units envisioned for 2023. Simon Communities Ireland proposes that a target of 5,000 vacant units in 2023 and again in 2024 be set, with the potential for review in 2025. These homes would increase the social housing supply. Each loca…

I raised a number of issues regarding the budget during my speech yesterday. The budget had two key tasks - to cap and reduce energy prices and to target supports at those most in need. I pointed out that the Government did not fundamentally succeed in either task. While we welcome some of the initiatives, such as the one-off payment, the most straightforward, effective way to deal with soaring energy costs is to cap the energy companies and the units. The Government says this will only hand money over to the energ…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the budget but I think, as my colleague, Deputy Pringle, said, is just a bit of a performance, with us all standing up speaking on a budget that has been out in the media for the last week. I want to mention some statistics not referred to by the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform. The figures are courtesy of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s pre-budget submission. It is the reality for huge numbers of individuals and families. It is not a new developmen…

I am supporting the motion. The latest figures for fuel poverty seem to be from 2017. At the time, it was estimated that 475,000 households were affected by fuel poverty or, in other words, had to spend 10% of their income on heating their home. There is no up-to-date strategy to deal with fuel poverty. The retrofitting of homes has to be a key element of combating fuel poverty by making homes easier to heat and cutting energy bills. It is also a key factor in meeting the State's climate change targets. It has been…

On 9 August approximately 80 students on Dublin Business School's applied social care programme were sent an email notifying them the CORU board did not deem the programme as sufficient to meet its requirements to provide an approved qualification at this time. This came as a big shock to the students. I heard the Minister, Deputy Harris, on the radio on 31 August explaining the situation. He recognised that the main priority of the students was to try to get registered. I have received an email from Sarah Downing …

I want to briefly come in on a point Deputy Paul Murphy raised on the referendum on the public ownership of water. When will we see that coming through? My Bill, which was backed by the Right2Water campaign, has been buried in Committee Stage for the last number of years and at this stage we are told that a referendum on water will only take place along with a referendum on housing being a human right. Can the Taoiseach tell us when that will happen?

Is there no date?

It will be never-never.

You have still not sorted it out.

I support the motion. We are two weeks away from the 2023 budget and promised measures to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis. Like most responses from this Government I expect it will be too little, and it will certainly be too late. We should have had a mini-budget in the early summer. This is not just a crisis in heating and lighting for people and it is not a crisis confined to the winter months. People have been suffering from the cost of living over the summer months and what is kicking in now is that energy …

What is the estimated cost of amalgamating the four grants that comprise the reasonable accommodation fund, namely, the workplace equipment adaptation grant, the disability awareness support scheme, the personal reader grant and the job interview interpreter grant into one overall scheme, similar in structure to the UK's access to work scheme? The Minister of State knows where I am coming from on this as AsIAm has already sent him a submission on it. We just need to get feedback on that.

I welcome that. Bringing the four schemes together is helpful in that it can make the scheme easier to access for both disabled jobseekers and employers. That is where AsIAm is coming from. What is currently provided for by the Department is not sufficient to help some cohorts access the workplace, such as members of the deaf community. There is no structure in place for people who want to access other supports that are not provided for by the reasonable accommodation fund, such as in-person supports. I will be int…

The Minister of State is quite correct that employers are obliged to work under the Disability Act, but if they do not have support themselves, they cannot do that. That is why it is important employers are aware of these schemes and we should have a one-stop shop for access to them. Is the Minister of State thinking of setting up a reasonable support passport or something like that, which could help the employer and the prospective worker engage with what is available?

I ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will reconsider setting up a cost-of-living hardship fund to be distributed by community welfare officers in the community and accessible by families and persons who are deeply affected by the cost-of-living increases in food, medical bills, essential clothing and back-to-school costs. I ask her to make a statement on the matter.

I accept what the Minister said about the availability of hardship fund with no limit. When I was first active in politics as a councillor, we worked very closely with the community welfare officers in the area. There was one in the health centre in Crumlin and one in Curlew Road health centre in Drimnagh, as well as others in Parnell Road and Walkinstown. People approaching me would be able to work very well with community welfare officers and let the person know where to go, etc. They were taken out of the commun…

I heard the media campaign which I welcome. I am sure it will have an impact when we get to see the figures for the past month or so. Obviously, the number of people looking for additional needs payments increased because of the cost-of-living increase and not because of the media campaign because the increase happened before the campaign. We should have a specific pilot scheme in a rural area and put a community welfare officer into the community to see how that impacts for people in the area. It is impossible for…