I thank Sinn Féin and particularly Deputy Tully for tabling this motion on services for children with disabilities. At the end of last year I submitted a question to the HSE and got a very detailed six-page reply on CDNTs, the SOP, preliminary team assessment, resources and so on. According to that reply, all our problems were solved. It stated that the SOP for the assessment of need process sought to ensure that children with disabilities and their families access appropriate assessment and intervention as quickly…

Hospitals are coming under major pressure because of the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital beds. There were 1,395 such patients yesterday. That figure is up 29% in the past seven days. There are 55 patients ICU, up from 44 a week ago. Yesterday, 22,000 positive polymerase chain reaction, PCR, and antigen tests were registered. Anne O’Connor, chief operations officer with the HSE, has stated that 5,200 staff are absent due to Covid and that the number of teams available in hospitals is falling and that electiv…

Who is giving the Government the advice? Is it the Chief Medical Officer?

The Government agreed to have a public hospital on public land.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this Private Members' motion and welcome the opportunity to speak to it. The significant increases in energy prices, and the knock-on effect on inflation in general, mean many individuals and families now face a severe cost-of-living crisis and there is no guarantee this crisis will go away any time soon. Even if, in their current talks, Ukraine and Russia come to some agreement, although there is certainly no guarantee of that, sanctions on Russia are likely to remain in some form. We…

My question is to ask the Minister the opening date for autism classes in schools in Dublin 12, the reason for the delay in opening the classes and if they will be open for September 2022. This is a follow-up question to the question I asked on the previous occasion regarding the capacity of schools in the Dublin 12 area when the Minister of State felt there was capacity in the area. I met with the campaign for Dublin 12 autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units. They asked me to resubmit this question to give more info…

The autism community and myself are well aware of the good work that has gone on to date. There has been an increase in classes. We welcome that but, as the Minister of State said, there are still pinch points. Holy Spirit Junior Primary School has been out to tender for an autism class for the past number of years, yet there is still no movement on it. I welcome that the Minister of State is saying that will open in 2022-23. Will she provide verification that Scoil Úna Naofa is on course to open an autism class in…

I welcome those few points the Minister of State made about Scoil Úna Naofa. With regard to Drimnagh Castle, an NCSE report a number of years ago stated: The school had reported that it does not have the physical space to accommodate any new classes, and therefore has advised the NCSE that it is not in a position to establish ASD Special Classes. School management report that there are currently 14 SET Teachers using 6 rooms. The Patron advises this school has available land on which the school could expand. That i…

Last week, I raised the fact that Deputy Pringle had requested a debate on the national maternity hospital. In his response, the Taoiseach said that he was not averse to such a debate. The Chief Whip was sitting behind him at the time. Despite this, when Deputy Pringle raised the matter again in a meeting of the Business Committee, it was still not put on the agenda. I ask the Taoiseach to ensure such a debate is included on the agenda for this week or for when we come back from the break.

It was already voted for in Private Members’ time.

That is not good enough.

This is one of the biggest projects facing the country for women.

That is why we need a debate.

I wish to follow up on that. The planning application for St. Michael's estate was agreed by the council in 2016. The project was announced in 2018. At a housing committee presentation in 2020, we were told the planning application would be submitted in the first quarter of 2021. Now it has been postponed again. There is considerable frustration in the community over this. The community hoped contractors would be on site by 2023 but it now looks like it will be 2025.

A private developer would have to produce its final design and prepare tender documents while a planning application is in process. I cannot see why the same process could not be followed in relation to St. Michael's. I am disappointed that we are still talking about the third quarter of 2022 for the planning application to go in. We do not know how long it will take for the planning application to be approved or not. I urge the Minister to push the council as much as possible to get its act together. Not only is a…

I thank the Minister. Can he give us an indication of how long he thinks the process will take when the planning application goes to the unit? Is he talking about January, February or March 2023, or will it take longer? The Minister said that a new unit has been set up.

I have been contacted by a number of patients who attend St. James's Hospital for long Covid and they advise me that the post of senior occupational therapist, OT, at the hospital's post-Covid clinic is ceasing due to funding issues and that the senior OT will no longer be part of the post-Covid clinic. This has been a really important part of the care for patients. I wrote to the CEO of St. James's, who confirmed that in the past month the hospital has received confirmation of permanent funding resourcing for the …

I welcome everybody in the Gallery. I welcome Senator Flynn and thank her for being here and for chairing the Joint Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community, which was established in September 2020 to complete the work initiated by the previous joint committee, in which Collete Kelleher played a major role. We looked at four areas: physical health, mental health and suicide rates, in respect of which there are 21 recommendations; school completion rates and educational attainment, particularly at s…

Like Deputies Ó Cuív and Carthy, I wish to again register my frustration. When we put down these questions, we expect the Minister to be here. I wish to put on record that the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, seems to be operating not only at arm's length from the Dáil, but maybe at bridge length from it at this stage. The Minister of State will deliver a standard reply she got from the Department or whatever. I do not think it is good enough on an issue as important as the new national maternity hospital. There …

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. First of all, the Religious Sisters of Charity have physically gone from SVHG but their canon law has not. They have got permission from the Vatican and the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference to go ahead with this deal. Under canon law, St. Vincent's Hospital is the property of the Catholic Church. I did not hear anything in the Minister of State’s response to say it will not continue to use canon law while it gets the national maternity hospital. That is my very signific…