The Minister has made substantial additional investments in oral healthcare services in recent years, but I take the Deputy's point about the lived reality he outlined, especially regarding people with intellectual disabilities trying to negotiate complex administrative systems which are not always very user friendly. I will certainly take that point back to the Minister. I will also ask him to supply the list of 57 contractors to the Deputy. I thank him for raising the points he did. I will take the message back t…

I welcome the opportunity to outline the position on this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and Minister of State, Deputy Chambers. An Post is a commercial State company with a mandate to act commercially and, as such, day-to-day operational matters, including decisions in relation to the size, distribution and future of the network, are matters for the board and management of the company and not ones in which the Minister, Deputy Ryan, has a statutory function. However, both the Minister and Min…

I appreciate the Deputy's passionate advocacy for the retention of the situation with the post office in Roscommon town. I reiterate that An Post has outlined that its change in business model of the six offices I have mentioned, including Roscommon, will not in any way change the range or extent of the services offered by An Post in those selected locations. The company remains committed to providing each area with the highest level of services for the future. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister of S…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity, on behalf of the Department of Education, to outline to the Dáil the current position in relation to the large-scale capital building projects for Holy Family Community School, Rathcoole, and the Clondalkin schools campus. The projects are included in the Department's construction programme which will be delivered under the national development plan as part of the Project Ireland 2040 framework. The Department's planning and building…

Under Project Ireland 2040, the Department of Education is investing well in excess of €5 billion over the period 2021 to 2025 to add capacity and develop and upgrade school facilities across the country for the almost 1 million students and over 100,000 staff who learn and work in our schools every day. The Department of Education has a strong track record of delivery of school building projects and this was achieved again in 2023, notwithstanding the wider construction sector environment of high inflation, labour…

I am happy to do that. I have only updates on two schools in my information here.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. Before I address the specific issues raised by the Deputy, I will provide an outline of the extent of the school transport system. The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, more than 161,600 children, including over 135,000 pupils, travelling on primary and post-primary services; 19,800 pupils with special educational needs; and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine …

I hope the situation for those young people in Pallaskenry will be resolved soon. It is clear the Department is engaging with them. I agree on the need for an integrated system and with the point the Deputy made about school buses doing their drop and then doing a return journey without passengers. That is certainly not efficient, in a variety of ways. Other Departments are also affected, including mine, the Department of Rural and Community Development, given we fund transport services through our community servic…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I thank the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands for its report on the progress being made on the SDGs. Achievement of the SDGs is essential if we are to ensure a sustainable future for all. They address the global and local challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. These challenges, if left unaddressed, will impact us all in the coming years and …

I thank the committee for its leadership on this. I agree with Deputy O'Rourke's point that other committees need to follow suit. It is not really an option for them; they need to do it. It is part of their job. I therefore appeal to all the other committees to do a similar analysis and a similar report and have a debate similar to that which we are having today. Again, I acknowledge the leadership of the committee in that regard. The Department of Rural and Community Development has a number of relevant funding pr…

Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has continued to work as part of the whole-of-government response with a focus on providing access to emergency temporary accommodation to those fleeing conflict who request it. The Department of the Taoiseach co-ordinates the whole-of-government response to Ukraine and other Departments and agencies are also involved in this response, and the integration of the beneficiaries of te…

We are working on it.

To be fair, he is in a committee and will close the debate.

Reliable, affordable, year-round cargo services are essential for the sustainability of our island communities. They provide support to indigenous island manufacturers and businesses and contribute to the quality of life for island communities. My Department currently subsidises nine heavy cargo contracts for 17 separate offshore islands. In 2022, over 45,000 tonnes of heavy cargo were carried on these services. In addition to these dedicated heavy cargo services, four passenger ferry contracts provide a light carg…

To give the Deputy some figures, the cost of heavy and light cargo contracts for 2022 was €2.2 million. It is important to remember that cargo services are procured on the open market through eTenders and competition is open, fair and transparent. The contracts are generally of a three-year duration, sometimes a little more, but there is a clause to review on an annual basis. What we are talking about here is the longer term framework, and the island's three-year action plan does include a commitment to review the …

I want to confirm that what the Department will do with the action plan is part of a bigger policy and desire to reinvigorate and keep life in the islands. The action plan has a particular focus on improving housing, water, infrastructure, health services, education services, high-speed broadband, outdoor amenities, sustainable tourism and reviewing transport costs. From speaking to officials about this, I understand that essentially the running costs of the cargo vessel are pretty much covered and then there is th…

My Department's CSP supports more than 430 community-based organisations to provide local services through a social enterprise model. The CSP contribution per full-time equivalent position is not aligned with the minimum wage and does not meet the full salary cost of supported posts. It is an annual contribution that must be co-funded by the organisations concerned from other sources, for example, from income generated from the use of facilities and services provided. A needs-based, differentiated funding allocatio…

I thank the Deputy. Some CSP projects do pay the living wage and beyond. It is now clearly a social enterprise model. That is the policy. To assist that we have a coaching and mentoring programme that will be put in place under the ESF Plus social innovation measure to assist organisations to improve their overall performance including financial sustainability. I will explain the increases in allocations I announced last December. A full-time equivalent at the higher rate of funding would increase from €23,033 to €…

During 2023 more than €16.5 million was allocated to Cork city and county through the schemes administered by my Department, such as the rural regeneration and development fund; the LEADER programme; the town and village renewal scheme; the community centre investment fund; the community services programme; and the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP. Since 2020, more than €110 million has been allocated to Cork by the Department, across the range of schemes it operates. Community groups can …

This issue has come up before. I am not passing the buck, but when a local authority approves a housing development, it needs to, and it is now within the guidelines and part of good practice that it should, facilitate space and infrastructure for a community hall and playing facilities and pitches. That is not always easy to do, but that is where it starts and that is where the line of responsibility begins. Through a variety of schemes, including the community centre investment fund, the local enhancement project…