Go back to him. Go back to your boyo.

The Minister has underfunded it.

He has underfunded it. There is no budget for local authorities.

In August 2023, the Before 5 Family Centre in Churchfield closed its doors, discommoding over 100 families who were left scrambling to find alternative places for their children. At that time, there was a commitment given by the previous Government that it would try to resource and fund this. Prior to the general election, as I am sure the Taoiseach knows, it was announced that funding of up to €250,000 would be made available for the centre through Northside Community Enterprises, in tandem with the Diocese of Cor…

I am delighted to deliver for my constituency.

I wish to bring to the Minister's attention a serious matter which recently impacted my constituents in Cork North-Central, in the areas of Ballyvolane and Dublin Hill. It is an area that was left five days without water, from Friday to Tuesday morning last. Despite continuously contacting Irish Water, constituents were given reference number after reference number, and Irish Water had no record of it by Monday morning. It was not submitted, from what we can ascertain, to the repair unit, and people were left witho…

I do not think I have had the opportunity to congratulate the Minister in the House so I will start by doing so and wishing him well in his new role. I wish him great success. I am sure he will make a success of it because I know him to be an honest and decent character. Is there a doctor in the House? I feel a bit faint because I found myself agreeing with Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett and I may need my pulse taken. Some valid points were made by Deputy Boyd Barrett today, especially in the context of just 100 peopl…

I have been listening to the debate and it is regrettable that we only have an hour for it, because it is a very important issue. We all admit that there is a crisis in Ukraine and a huge crisis at home. I am reminded of the words of George Orwell in Animal Farm , published in 1945, that "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." The means test has to be introduced. Last week, in this House, the Tánaiste admonished me - I think he thought he was in the Chair - for one simple question I asked. Now…

Do you want to go back there?

Will the Tánaiste confirm whether the reported payments to Ukrainian refugees for vehicle repairs, including sums ranging from €400 to €7,000, are being sourced from the exceptional needs payments of the Department of Social Welfare or is this coming from the humanitarian funding, similar to the humanitarian funding of €1 million per month for cats and dogs from Ukraine that previous Governments found? Does the Tánaiste believe that this expenditure is good value for money, especially in light of challenges to Iris…

By repairing their cars?

But they are.

Not at all. I am a truth-teller. I am just telling the truth. The Tánaiste does not like it------

I congratulate the Minister on his position and wish him the best of luck. I genuinely mean that. Today, we had the Taoiseach on his feet telling us that the Government's biggest commitment was to housing, and that the biggest commitment of his party and the other parties that are in government, including the Independents, was to housing, yet where are they? It is an empty Chamber. Where is the Government that is meant to be listening to us? We are looking at a 10% increase in homelessness in the past year, with 15…

I congratulate Deputy O'Sullivan on his position as Minister of State. I am delighted to see a Cork man elevated. I know he has been working very hard in his constituency but he does not need to worry because Deputy Collins has taken on extra staff because the Minister of State is not in the constituency anymore. He will be looking after all the necessary needs-----

-----from Goleen all the way up, so there is no need to panic or worry. I jest. I know what a good worker the Minister of State is. I praise the Sinn Féin organisation for tabling this motion. The tenant in situ scheme has been a great success but the changes the Government is proposing mean it is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is working very well, but since last October we have had no movement on tenants in situ in Cork city. This is affecting 40 families. Why do people want to be in the tenant in …

I ask the Minister to clarify if there is a mandatory requirement for dental practices to accept patients with medical cards for treatment. What measures are in place to ensure access to dental care for medical card holders? What are the current procedures for emergency dental treatment for children under the age of 16 when dental clinics, such as the dental clinic in Cork city, are closed at weekends? What plans does she have to improve accessibility to urgent dental care for patients under the age of 16?

I appreciate the Minister's response and I understand the response but the DTSS programme just is not working. For instance, the working-class town of Mallow that I come from, which has 13,450 adults living there, has no medical card provided dentist practice. Nobody is accepting a medical card in Mallow. You must travel to Cork city or to Charleville, to Limerick or down to Kerry. Many practices have given up because the system is not working. Would the Minister agree that what we need to be doing now as a Governm…

Some day. Could we not start looking at a programme where medical cards are accepted in the same way as when a person goes to the GP and the dentist would be paid in the same way GPs are paid, so everyone is covered and there would be buy-in from everybody? The other reality is that there are situations in Cork city where if a young child falls off their bike and breaks their teeth, they have no access to the dental clinic on the weekend and therefore it is either accident and emergency or the mercy of a dentist wh…

I thank the Minister but, as I pointed out, emergency care is available but is not available all the time. What does a parent do when their child is suffering? Parents have to find the money somewhere and they will beg, borrow and steal to protect or save their children. In my constituency of Cork North-Central many people have come to me and said they had to borrow money from friends or family because they had no access to dental care for a child over the weekend due to an accident. That is €2,000 or €3,000. It is…