They do not like the truth.

They do not like the truth.

I thank Senator Ryan for raising this important matter and giving me an opportunity to update the House on it. The national planning framework, NPF, as revised in April, retains national policy objective, NPO, 24 "to support the sustainable development of rural areas". This NPO makes a clear policy distinction between rural areas under urban influence, that is, those areas within the commuter catchments of cities, towns and centres of employment, where there is a need to facilitate rural housing on the basis of dem…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very distressing situation for the homebuyers who entered into contracts and indeed paid significant deposits for the purchase of 16 homes at Ringfort development in Rathmolyon, County Meath. I have read news reports as recently as this morning about this case. My deepest sympathies go out to those families. I understand the frustration they are facing. For many of us, buying a new home is a dream. It is an aspiration for all families. The Government is committed to ensuring…

As I said in my opening reply, I have great sympathy for those who are trying to purchase homes here and across the country. That is why the Government is putting supports in place like the one the Deputy mentioned, to support homebuyers in purchasing their first home. I would love to be able to solve this matter for the individuals and families in question. As he will appreciate, contractual and legal frameworks govern the purchase of properties and have to be followed. This is a matter in respect of which a legal…

The Senator mentioned "within reason" and that is appropriate. I have tried to introduce in the Department a common-sense and practical approach to planning in everything that I have done. On rural policy, I absolutely will ensure that we continue to support the development of rural one-off housing, as is happening around the country at present, but we must strike a balance. I am from Waterford city and I do not believe that I should be able to go out into mid-County Waterford or west Waterford, buy a greenfield pl…

I thank the Senator for raising this important matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Health. The Senator has referred to the development of an electronic health record at the new national children’s hospital and the broader digitalisation of patient records under the Digital for Care strategy. Creating a secure, digital health records system for everyone, not just children, is a transformative opportunity for Ireland. At the core of this effort are the significant investments the Government is mak…

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this important matter. It gives me the opportunity to update the House on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Government fully understands and acknowledges the difficulties that homeowners and residents of many apartments and duplexes are facing and the stress that is caused when defects arise in their properties. The Government is committed to helping those whose lives have been impacted by this issue. As the Deputy is aware and mentioned…

As I have said, the electronic health record is going to be critical in the time ahead to ensure that not just children but patients right across the health system have optimised care to ensure better clinical outcomes. It will allow us to ensure that, no matter where a patient is within the country or, as the Senator suggested, across the European Union, we will have that information. I take on board the Senator's points regarding communication, which I will take back to the Minister for Health. The best way to go…

Owners and renters deserve better. There is no question that these properties should not have been built to the standard that they were. They should have been built to a higher standard; that is a given. That is why the Government has committed to putting a significant remediation scheme in place to support the owners and renters in those properties to improve them and bring them up to an acceptable standard. The Minister, Deputy Browne, has continually met with stakeholders in this area. He is committed to progres…

I thank Senator Nelson Murray for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan. Disinformation and misinformation are complex issues that can have wide-ranging effects on society and democracy as a whole. I will begin by highlighting the key difference between "disinformation" and "misinformation". While both terms refer to false or misleading content that may cause harm, we refer to "disinformation" as misleading content that is shared with the intention of deceiving o…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. It gives me an opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister for Health. The neuro-rehabilitation strategy implementation framework was launched in February 2019. The overarching aim of the strategy is the development of neuro-rehabilitation services to improve outcomes for people by providing safe, high-quality, person-centred neuro-rehabilitation at the lowest appropriate level of complexity. Services must be integrated across the care pathway and provided …

I thank the Senator for setting out very eloquently the challenges we face as a society in tackling online disinformation, both in terms of harmful content for our younger population and also in terms of how we consume media and the impacts and influences it can have. From a personal perspective, I believe we should have age and identity verification on social media. The way people interact online can be very different from how they interact in the public domain. There is no silver bullet in this space. A combinati…

The Deputy has articulated very well the importance of this service to her community in Louth and the entire north-east area of the country. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to ensure the continued roll-out of the neuro-rehabilitation strategy, and community teams form a critical element of that. Budget 2026 has invested significant additional moneys in this area. That will have to be reflected in the HSE national service plan. There is a commitment to focus on the areas that do not have a team…

I thank Deputy Gogarty for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. Government investment in sport is essential to increase participation levels in all sports across all sectors of society. The allocation for the sports programme in budget 2026 is over €290 million, an increase of just under €60 million or 26% compared to the 2025 allocation. When the national sports policy was published in 2018, it set a commitment to double investment in sport to more than €220 million b…

I thank Deputy Gogarty. It is obviously an exceptionally important project for his area that he has campaigned for over a significant period of time. I acknowledge the people that were previously involved, including his own dad, as he mentioned. Sport is really important, as are pools. I come from a sporting background myself in that I am a qualified physical education teacher. I understand the importance of having good quality sports infrastructure in all of our communities right across the country. As I said in m…

I thank Deputy McGettigan very much for raising this important matter, to which I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Health. Improving access to home support is a priority for the Government. The overall budget for home support in 2025 is circa €838 million. This is the largest allocation ever for home support. It is an increase of nearly €122 million on the previous year and an increase of over 70% when compared to the 2020 budget of €487 million. We are on track to exceed the target of 24 million home su…

As I said in my opening statement, budget 2026 will increase the number of hours provided for home support to 26.7 million, which is significantly more than what was provided in 2025. Nonetheless, I acknowledge the points the Deputy has raised. The Minister of State with responsibility for older persons and housing, Deputy O'Donnell, is committed to ensuring that where there are gaps in provision, including in County Clare as the Deputy has pointed out, they will be addressed through the national service plan which…

I thank the Acting Chair. I welcome the opportunity to reflect on the progress that is being made in water services and water quality and the ongoing efforts of the Government and Uisce Éireann in this area. I assure the Seanad that securing a safe and reliable water supply is a top priority for the Government, as is improving water quality in our rivers, lakes and coastal waters. It is worth noting that, over the past ten years, Uisce Éireann has gradually increased capital investment in water services and infrast…

I thank those who have contributed to this discussion on water quality and the performance of Uisce Éireann. I assure the Senators that their comments will be fed back to Uisce Éireann. Some of the concerns and issues they have raised, collectively and individually, are ones that we share. A number of Senators raised matters related to developer provided infrastructure and the importance of that in facilitating the development of smaller settlement areas across the country that either do not have capacity or do not…