I thank Senator O’Reilly for raising this matter because it gives me the opportunity to update the House, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Helen McEntee, on the current position regarding the new building project for Bailieborough Community School, Virginia Road, Bailieborough, County Cavan. The project referred to was originally approved to enter the Department of Education and Youth’s pipeline for school building projects under the additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme to provide f…

Once again, I thank Senator O’Reilly for bringing up this issue on behalf of her constituents. As I said earlier, I am dealing with this matter on behalf of the Minister for education, Deputy McEntee. The Department of Education and Youth awaits the submission of the stage 2b post-planning report and will progress the project once this has been submitted for evaluation. The report must include all statutory requirements associated with the planning process. At this stage it is not possible to predict when this scho…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and giving me this opportunity to update Members on the issue of vacancy and dereliction. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. Tackling vacancy and dereliction is a key priority for the Government. The reuse of vacant and derelict properties can provide much-needed housing, while also being a catalyst to revitalising communities. A number of national structures have now been estab…

Once again, I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. Addressing vacancy and dereliction is a key priority for the Government. As I stated, I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. As I mentioned, with regard to dereliction and vacancy in Ireland, particularly in small towns and villages, the Government is taking a proactive, co-ordinated and whole-of-government approach, which recognises the importance of supporting and empowerin…

I thank Deputy Ó Cearúil for raising this matter. I am taking this debate and matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Deputy Ó Cearúil will appreciate that I cannot talk about individual cases before the Chamber. Obviously, if the Deputy has questions in relation to individuals, they can be raised directly with the Department of Health. I acknowledge the case he has highlighted, however. While I cannot specifically talk about it, I acknowledge how difficult it has been for the family. …

Once again, I thank Deputy Ó Cearúil for the attention he has given to this important matter. As I already said, I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Once again, the Deputy will appreciate that I cannot speak on individual cases, but I do want to acknowledge the matters he has raised in respect of his constituents. The procedure needs to go ahead as scheduled. That is hugely important. I acknowledge the angst and anxiety caused to families when operations and procedu…

I thank all Deputies for their contributions to this important debate. On behalf of the Government, I acknowledge the great work provided by carers. I say that on a human level. We all deal with them every day, both in our daily lives and as public representatives. I want to put that on record. The Government is very aware of the valuable work being carried out by family carers. This is evidenced by the extensive measures that have been taken to support carers in recent years. The approach to date has been targeted…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of my colleague the Minister for Health, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Primary care psychology plays a central role in providing care and treatment to both children and adults in the community and, particularly, in offering the opportunity for early intervention for children and young people. The increased pressure and demand on primary care services, and on primary care psychology for children and young people in part…

The Minister recognises fully the frustration of people in the local area with long waiting times for certain services and realises that much more needs to be done to fill local vacancies, address waiting lists and ensure consistent, equitable and timely access to primary care services. Since 2021, the primary care psychology waiting list initiative, which targets removals from the waiting list of those under the age of 18 waiting longer than 52 weeks to access services, has been operational. To date, the initiativ…

I thank Deputy Kelly. I know of his keen and genuine interest in this particular subject. I will deal with the questions he actually raises. I have an answer there for him. I am going straight to the capital programme. As part of this capital programme, older persons' services in north Tipperary are being enhanced by the opening of a new state-of-the-art 50-bed community nursing unit in Nenagh to replace St. Conlon’s Community Nursing Unit. As the Deputy said, there was a €24 million investment. The new Nenagh comm…

I appreciate the frustration of people, including the residents of St. Conlon's and the people in the area. I have gone through this intensively and there is a process. There is an application before HIQA. It takes an average of about ten working days to assess an application. The application has gone in within the past week. I cannot pre-empt the outcome of the registration by HIQA, but it is normally a ten-day working cycle, and once that is complete, the residents who are in St. Conlon's will be brought to the n…

I am not in any way questioning the Deputy, but on the process, they have been waiting a long time. Once they are moved over along with the staff, the HSE has assured me locally, and I have made very up-to-date inquiries, that it has the resources staff-wise to be able to move and scale up to the 50-bed unit very quickly. Looking at the cycle of it, we are in the month of September and certainly it will not happen before the end of September. I think that is reasonable to say. We are looking, I hope, at it happenin…

I am saying it will not happen in September. I think that is reasonable. While I cannot give a firm date, we would be looking at the period from October on.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am responding on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. As the Deputy will be aware, Okur-Chung is an ultra-rare neurodevelopmental syndrome with an estimated 160 individuals living with this syndrome globally. Okur-Chung was first identified in 2016 and, as such there is still much we do not know about this syndrome. However, ongoing international research seeks to provide a better understanding of Okur-Chung syndrome and e…

I acknowledge the story the Deputy tells about Elizabeth. Is it her son Leo?

What age is Leo?

It is called Okur-Chung neurodevelopmental syndrome, OCNDS. Is that the norm?

I appreciate how difficult it is for Elizabeth, Leo and his family. Once again, I thank the Deputy for providing the opportunity to discuss this important matter. As previously stated, it is hoped that through the implementation of the recently launched national rare disease strategy, we can increase rare disease research opportunity in Ireland. Knowing that meaningful research is being undertaken offers hope for the future as well as possibly leading to treatment options. By building on the work already undertaken…

I thank Deputy Hayes for raising this important issue today. The clear focus of this Government is to increase the supply of new build social and affordable homes to buy or rent. There is a record level of investment being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding available of €6.8 billion. The capital provision is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need. This funding will support the delivery of increased numbers of social housing and cost…

I join in acknowledging his recent passing. He was obviously someone very close to the Deputy. I am utterly committed to housing for all people. For me, it about providing choice. I take this very seriously and I am actively progressing and working on it. As the Deputy said, our demographic is evolving and we will have an older population. We have to bring a range of choices across the spectrum for older people and I want to work on that with all sides of the House. It is hugely important and very much a priority f…