Questions Nos. 119 and 120 are grouped but I am satisfied that Questions Nos. 168 and 173, in the names of Deputies Ó Snodaigh and Joan Collins, may be grouped with them.

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak today. I congratulate Senator Flynn not only on her contribution to the report but on her contribution to the Seanad. In no particular order, I was struck by a number of things. I served as a county councillor on South Dublin County Council along with Deputies Ward and Ó Broin, although I was there before either of them. As such I was very fortunate to work under one of the most exemplary public servants on this issue and other issues, the late Joe Horan, who was chief exe…

I do not agree with much of the sentiment just expressed and nor would I like to see the situation exploited to that end. I know many of my colleagues would agree with that. It is important to make the point that not so long ago, in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea, a number of Members of the European Parliament representing parties opposite, whom I will not name because I do not want to politicise the particular debate, criticised the European Union for being overly confrontational towards Russia. They no…

I welcome the first move today in establishing the two citizens' assemblies, one on the loss of biodiversity and the other on a directly elected mayor for Dublin. I will focus first, if I may, on the citizens' assembly on the loss of biodiversity. Citizens' assemblies have served the country very well. That does not mean we cannot develop hybrid versions of them or continue to look at them to see how they can continue to serve us well. They were certainly ahead of politicians, or maybe in a better place to take mor…

The question is in regard to the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB. I am looking to get a report from the Minister on the work of PIAB last year and the plans for PIAB this year. In that context, I welcome the fact the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, secured agreement yesterday to draft his personal injuries resolution board Bill, so the question is timely.

That is a good reply and some of the figures in that are positive. Can the millions of euro saved be quantified? Is there any figure for that or does the Minister of State have any sense of how much has been saved by the State and individual consumers in premiums due to the work of PIAB? What has been the general impact of those reduced awards? Almost three-quarters of the awards are now less than €15,000, as the Minister of State noted in his reply. That is significant and consumers are looking for the knock-on ef…

That is welcome. PIAB is effective and what the Minister of State is proposing in the Bill is to expand its remit so that it can deal with more cases. Some of these cases are of a psychological nature, which PIAB does not currently deal with as I understand it from what he said. That is also welcome and he essentially said it has resulted in a fifteen-fold reduction, or close to it. It is probably less than that if the average PIAB claim is €800 compared to legal recourse, which costs €16,000 or €17,000. That is we…

Deputy Carthy had his time. The Minister without interruption, please.

The Deputy should not direct me to do anything. The Minister to conclude.

I thank the Deputy.

I have targets too.

The Minister to conclude.

Thank you, Minister. We must move on.

We will go back to Question No. 106.

The Deputy should not look a gift horse in the mouth.

I am passionate about special needs education and the critical role special needs assistants, SNAs, play in the system. I am grateful for the Minister of State's presence. I will outline some of the duties special needs assistants fulfil in our schools, although it is not an exhaustive list. In mainstream schools, they monitor the children in the yard daily to make sure they are included in play with other children. They also assist children with differentiated work in the classroom. It is usually on the same topic…

I thank the Minister of State for the response. It is 43 years since the minimum standard of education was set for the SNA. In that time, as we know, SNAs have retrained and engaged in continuing professional development. It is time for the conversation around special needs assistants to be reset. My own party has a very proud record in this area, having introduced the SNA. The initial budget was €9 million. It is now into the billions. I refer to the very interesting paper by the European Journal of Special Needs …

When the evaluation of the period of Covid gets under way, young people, in fairness to them, will have more questions to ask than any other age cohort, and justifiably so. When they look at the restrictions put on their lives, they will have the most questions to ask. What is interesting with regard to what some of the previous speakers have said is what we would have done without social media over the past two years. We can decry it and deride it and it has serious downsides, but I wonder how our young people wou…

Deputy Denis Naughten is substituting for Deputy Verona Murphy.

No pressure at all with this question.