Nevertheless, that is my interpretation of what was written there. That is unfortunate. Notwithstanding that, I understand how the community feel about this. We will endeavour to talk to the resettlement team. There is potentially a role here as well for the new local authority integration teams. There is potentially a role for the programme I oversee, the social inclusion community activation programme, as well, to see what more we can do in acknowledgement that a lot has been done by the people in Borrisokane and…

My Department's community services programme supports more than 430 community-based organisations to provide local services through a social enterprise model with an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent position being supported and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager. In March 2023, funding of €1 million was made available for a call for proposals in respect of specific CSP services, resulting in 14 new applicants being approved entry to the CSP in December 2023, su…

I acknowledge the Deputy's ongoing advocacy for Muirhevnamore community centre. He raises it with me regularly. We supply funding for it to support a manager and three full-time equivalents, so that is an annual contribution of €114,000 supplied to Muirhevnamore community centre. I again summarise that, over the past four years, there has been a list of financial pressures on the CSP that really started with Covid. Many CSP organisations depend on the income they generate themselves. That varies a lot depending on …

I acknowledge and thank all of those involved in CSP organisations. The past couple of years have been particularly challenging, and they have all stepped up to the plate. If the Deputy sends me more detail on the Blackrock situation, we can look into it. I do not know if appeal options were exhausted. To outline what we have been doing in terms of boosting CSP funding in recent years, we put out the new call and kept things going during Covid. That involved significant investment. The new model cost us a little mo…

That should not be the case. We want to incentivise people to get onto CE schemes. We have lots of vacancies and we are particularly interested in those with disabilities because a high rate of people with disabilities are unemployed. We have taken measures under the CE schemes to try to encourage people on disability allowance to take up the scheme. I would be happy to look into the case if the Deputy sends me some details.

My Department administers a number of funding streams addressing integration by way of annual and multi-annual grants. I have been working to maximise these funds to support excellent work and proposed work across communities in every corner of Ireland, to help migrants to settle in. Despite recent negative events, this remains the more dominant response of Irish communities to new arrivals. The national integration fund has the goal of supporting communities across Ireland to play a greater role in promoting the i…

The Deputy makes a number of good points. With smaller funds, such as the community integration fund, we keep the administration level down as much as possible because we want local groups like that to be able to apply for it, so we do our best to keep it as simple as possible. However, with higher amounts of money, when you are talking about hundreds of thousands of euro, a higher level of due diligence is required. I also want to take the opportunity to acknowledge that tomorrow is 1 May. It is 20 years since EU …

We are investing in infrastructure but in people as well. I want to acknowledge the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman’s contribution in this area too. We are developing, under his guidance, local authority integration teams. This bulks up the capacity of local authorities across the country to have a very particular focus on migrant integration. My understanding is that 75% of those positions have been filled and that is trending upwards too. I must also mention the community recognition fund which is all about how many co…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to have the opportunity to introduce this important Bill, which will improve and update our civil registration legislation and, in particular, allow parents and bereaved families the opportunity to register a birth, death or stillborn online, update the criteria for stillbirths and provide timely notification of deaths to the State. The new online registration service will be available to persons who have an authenticated standard authentication framew…

I thank the Deputies who contributed to the discussion this afternoon. I appreciate the support of Deputies across the board for progressing the measures contained in this Bill, which will have a positive impact on the interactions that citizens have with the State civil registration service and will greatly assist in the modernisation of the service. The introduction of online registration of births, deaths and stillbirths will allow a greater level of flexibility and robustness to parents and bereaved families as…

I move: That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands, pursuant to Standing Orders 95(3)( a ) and 181(1).

I thank the Senator for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity, on behalf of my colleague the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to update the House on the development contribution waiver scheme. Increasing housing supply is key to addressing the problems at the heart of the housing system. To help address this issue, the Government's action plan on housing, Housing for All, has set an average annual delivery target of 33,000 homes per year over the period to 2030…

There is little doubt, as part of the package of measures introduced by the Government under Housing for All, that the development contribution waiver and water connection charge refund schemes have been very effective in achieving their objective of influencing an immediate increase in housing commencement rates, which are now, as I said, at their highest level since records began in 2015. However, it is important to note that the schemes have been successful in achieving their objective due to their time-bound na…

The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, thanks Senator Byrne for providing the opportunity to update the House on the number of vacant properties in the ownership or possession of the Department or the HSE. The Health Service Executive is responsible for the management of the public healthcare property estate. The HSE has established property protocols for the disposal of property surplus to health requirements. When a HSE-owned property has been vacated by a health service, it is necessary to determine if it is …

The Minister again thanks the Senator for the opportunity to update the House on this matter. The HSE is responsible for the management of the public healthcare property estate and, as I mentioned, as of 29 February a total of 183 vacant properties were at various stages. To ensure the optimal use of State land, the HSE has developed property protocols for the acquisition and disposal of property that are in line with the Department of public expenditure's circular. Recently, the HSE has been very co-operative with…

I thank the Senator for raising this important matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. Teach An Saol provides a valuable service to a number of clients with a severe acquired brain injury, offering an intensive and inclusive neurological and rehabilitation programme informed by best international practice. Funding for individual capital projects is an operational matter for the HSE, which has advised the Department of Health of the position on capital funding as follows. All E…

Neuro-rehabilitation services play a critical role in supporting recovery and-or maximising the ability of those with neurological conditions, including those with acquired brain injury, and the Government remains committed to the continued implementation of the neuro-rehabilitation strategy. The overarching aim of the strategy is the development of neuro-rehabilitation services to improve patient outcomes by providing safe high-quality person-centred neuro-rehabilitation at the lowest appropriate level of complexi…

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, I thank the Senator for raising this matter and for the opportunity to update the House. As he will be aware, a central objective of the programme for Government is to deliver increased levels of integrated healthcare services, with delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services, enabling a home-first approach. Integral to this is the development of primary care centres, PCCs, across the country in local communities. Primar…

Primary care centres, as mentioned, provide important primary care infrastructure and can support the delivery of integrated care by facilitating closer co-ordination and co-operation between health professionals from across different disciplines. The Minister will be aware that sometimes there can be delays due to a variety of circumstances with the development of centres in certain locations and wishes to acknowledge the frustration that this can cause for communities. However, following the completion of a revie…

I too thank Senator Sherlock for raising this very important issue. All forms of family leave are kept under review to ensure that they are effective in supporting families and children. The Maternity Protection Act 1994 and the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 provide a pregnant employee with six months of paid maternity leave and an additional 16 weeks of unpaid leave. The Irish Cancer Society's Leave our Leave campaign highlighted the difficulties faced by those who are diagnosed with cancer while pregn…