If those organisations want to contact the Department and my office, we can follow up. To clarify the criteria for eligibility, as the Deputy mentioned, organisations need to receive less than 80% State funding, as the Government had committed to maintaining existing contracts and grants throughout the crisis and offered other additional supports. Organisations had to project a reduction of 25% or more in their fundraising or traded income for 2020 compared with 2019 figures. Delivering certain eligible critical se…

I thank the Deputy for his question. I assure him that I am from rural Ireland and I understand the situation. I am also familiar with the Deputy's constituency as I have some relatives living there. We are doing more than I can tell the Deputy about in the time available to me. Many of the Department's policies and funding programmes aim to address isolation in rural and urban communities and to deliver benefits to communities by responding to the challenges faced by vulnerable individuals, especially during Covid…

I thank the Deputy and acknowledge everything he is saying. I wish to provide additional information on the senior alert scheme that could be useful. A new befriending phone call initiative will support participants in the senior alert scheme, which is operated in conjunction with Pobal and Alone. The Department has utilised the senior alert scheme, which provides monitored alarms for older people in their homes, to enable the roll-out of the befriending initiative, which requires users to test their alarms to ensu…

Rural crime is outside of my remit but in terms of helping people to feel connected and recognised, the Community Call initiative run by the Department is worth mentioning. This initiative sought to link local and national Government with the community and voluntary sectors. Its purpose was to co-ordinate community activity, direct community assistance and organise and deploy volunteers. It is hoped that people will not feel so alone as volunteers call to their homes more often because of the Community Call initiat…

It is somewhat out of my remit but I understand that groups, such as residents associations which wish to erect signage in their local areas, are generally referred to the roads section of their local authority, so the Deputy might get more joy out of them. That section will ensure such signage is in keeping with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport traffic signals manual. This manual provides details on the traffic signs which may be used on roads in Ireland, including their layout and symbols, the circu…

I take the Deputy’s point, which is a good one. I will pass this back to the other Department but only because that is where it is best put. There is a point to be made in regard to eyesores, over-signage, unnecessary signage and old signage that does not really tell us anything anymore. There is also the issue that if people are driving through rural Ireland, they will pass so many places that are of value and interest, and we just do not know it. I will contact my colleague who looks after the heritage side and I…

I will pass that on to the other Department.

To reiterate, my Department's mission is to promote rural and community development and support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland. We deliver this funding and supports to local communities and groups through implementing policies designed to enhance economic and social opportunities for individuals which improve the quality of life in all our communities. Overall responsibility for adult education rests with my colleague, the Minister for further and higher education, research, innov…

SICAP is very much in that space. It provides: lifelong learning and training; CV and interview preparation; personal development courses; self-employment training; business planning and budgeting supports; and helps people get onto a work placement programme such as community employment or the Tús programme. Public libraries are also under our remit. They provide access to extensive online services and have been hosting extensive online workshops and seminars which the public can view via their local library’s soc…

I would be happy to liaise with the Deputy on that issue. They are excellent projects which bring people out of their comfort zones who would never have thought of doing something in their communities. They are brilliant. I will give a little more information on libraries because while they are used well, more people could use them. In response to the crisis, systems were put in place to allow people to join libraries online without having to physically visit one. This resulted in an upsurge in membership, with ove…

I thank the Deputy for his input. We shared a different chamber not so long ago and I recall him passionately defending his community there. There are not too many speeches I remember from that chamber but that was one of them. I thank him for doing that and for defending a crucial community resource in this case. There are two halves to the answer to the question, the first of which relates to the structural funding issue. I understand that the Department provided some funding in that regard at the beginning of th…

I assure the Deputy that on my watch, these services will be there and I will do everything to ensure they will continue to be there. It is a requirement of receiving support under the programme that organisations are obliged to pay at least the minimum wage. CSP funding is for social enterprises that are in a position to generate income to match the CSP contribution, which is a minimum requirement under the programme. If the programme were to increase the funding contribution to align it to the minimum wage, it co…

I welcome this discussion. My colleague has already recognised that there is a fairly obvious deficiency in what we are doing. We are basically a room full of white men talking about racism. It is important to say that.

Apologies. I had a look around earlier but did not spot Deputy Catherine Murphy sitting right behind me. As we go forward, we should have a committee session on this where we can hear people talk directly about their experiences. I want to address a couple of points. Racism is not exceptional. When we start talking about racists as individuals, we lose the ability to see how imbued racism is in every aspect of our society. I prefer to talk about racism because it is everywhere. If we are fully honest with each othe…

No, I am taking it all myself. I will leave time for questions. I will make my contribution in two tranches. The Minister and Minister of State have already touched on some of the issues I wanted to talk about. I welcome the announcement of the sports recovery action plan. I ask the Minister of State to delve into it in a little bit more detail and outline a timeline for when he expects it to be set up. I emphasise the importance of local clubs. The Minister of State spoke about channelling funding through national…

I would also like to raise the issue of racism, particularly as it pertains to sport. I bring it up because Ms Nadia Power, the Irish athlete, recently asked us to continue the conversation on racism. We need to continue it in an appropriate and positive way. That is the only way we will make a difference to the various ways that people of colour and people from ethnic minorities experience racism on a regular basis in Ireland, including on sporting grounds. We must keep that issue on the agenda and keep the discus…

The fact is that the climate action plan got it wrong in a variety of ways. Seeing as we are on the topic right now, one of the main ways the climate action plan got it wrong related to modal shift. It is well and good having ambition for electric vehicles because ambition is good. I was home-schooling my nine year old today. I think that if I showed her the figures for electric vehicles that the Minister outlined - 15,000 today; 180,000 in five years' time; and a million in 2030 - she would say that does not reall…

I am not proposing we further subvent electric vehicles, just to be clear. Could the Minister give me an update on progress for BusConnects projects outside Dublin? I understand that there is a delay in Dublin, I think due to the inability to perform site visits. Will the Minister provide an update on the other projects? What cities are being considered? On the climate action plan, why are emissions from aviation or shipping not considered?

What about emissions from shipping?

Aer Lingus's parent company, IAG, has informed investors of its €10 billion war chest to see it through the pandemic. They are currently in talks to acquire additional airlines in Spain and Austria, all the while taking advantage of wage subsidy schemes in Ireland, England and Spain. I wish to raise concerns about the actions of Aer Lingus management in the Dublin area in terms of restructuring plans. Up to and including today, unions have been looking for meetings with Aer Lingus management in Dublin and they have…