I thank Senator Hoey for raising the important matter of the retirement gratuity payable to local authority members. It is a matter of which I am acutely aware. It came up when I was taking part in a session on local government on Wednesday, 28 June. More particularly, I have spoken at length with the AILG, the Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA, and councillors nationwide. I travel to all the local authorities, so I am very aware of it. I want to thank the Members for their consistently strong support for…

I again thank the Senator for raising the important matter of councillors' retirement gratuity. I will make a couple of points. I have been in this role for a relatively short time. I have given priority to councillors' security costs and there are also the issues of the gratuity for councillors and getting maternity leave for women councillors embedded. The views Senator Hoey expressed will be given serious consideration. There are two aspects to the timing. We have to get this right. I want to ensure this stands …

I thank Senator Currie for raising this matter. I want to give a bit of context because she is going in on a planning issue. The national planning framework 2018 recognises the importance of the provision of childcare facilities, specifying that: the continued provision and enhancement of facilities and amenities for children and young people, such as childcare, schools, playgrounds, parks and sportsgrounds, remains necessary and will need to be maintained at similar levels for the foreseeable future thereafter. We…

I thank the Senator once again for raising this important matter. She has identified the issues. In her view, it is now about process. A review is currently under way of the planning guidelines for childcare facilities. Second, officials from my Department and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth are engaging in updating the section 28 Childcare Facilities: Guidelines for Planning Authorities with feedback from the individual local authorities. Regarding the point the Senator rais…

I thank Deputy Canney for raising this matter. My Department provides Exchequer funding to local authorities to support the suite of housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability, which support older and disabled people living in private houses to adapt their home to meet their needs. I agree with Deputy Canney that the scheme is hugely beneficial. The total funding available for the suite of housing adaptation grants has increased to more than €83 million for 2023, continuing the year-on-…

To give reassurance, we are looking at all grants, including housing adaptation for older people, the mobility aids grant and the disabled persons grants. The review looked in the round at both income thresholds and the level of grants. They are all included in the review and the submissions made to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. Active discussions are now taking place between the respective officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage a…

I absolutely concur. We see on the ground, even in my role as a Deputy in Limerick city, the impact and benefit it has. I want to acknowledge that there is a significant body of work under way by our officials in the Department. I acknowledge the work of the officials in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform as well. At this moment in time, it is up to date in that discussions are now taking place. The Deputy will be aware, as a former Minister of State, of the process.…

I am well aware this is a matter the Deputy has raised consistently. I wish to advise her that I have received a report from the chair of the Galway task force covering social housing and related issues over the period of 2021 to 2022. Once I and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, have completed a review in consultation with officials, we will arrange for a copy of the report to be sent to the Deputy. We will also have to consult the members of the task force prior to forwarding the report. I acknowledge the wor…

I cannot answer that. I will certainly clarify that point. On the Galway issue, the Deputy brought this up recently in the House and asked for the report to be published. We have gotten a report, which we have just received, as the Deputy will appreciate. She will appreciate that we need to give it proper due consideration. We have just received it. We are going to go through it in depth. The Minister met with the Simon Community in Galway just this Monday. It is something we are very conscious of. It is important …

When the Deputy brought this up previously, I undertook that we would get the report. We have a report now. We have a working document. It is not fair to say what the Deputy has said. Social housing delivery has taken place in Galway. We would obviously like to see a lot more but it is not as if there has not been any. In 2021, Galway city delivered 129 houses and Galway county delivered 117. In 2022 there was an improvement; Galway city delivered 150 and Galway county delivered 224. We have a document. We should d…

The Gearagh, as the Deputy mentioned, is a privately owned site and has not been considered for national park status. My Department does not own or manage any part of this special area of conservation, SAC, which is owned largely by the ESB. A management plan scoping exercise was undertaken by ESB International on behalf of the ESB in 2016 and 2017. The National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, of my Department took part in the stakeholder group that contributed to the report produced as a result of that exercise.…

The Deputy has made constructive comments. As he is aware, the NPWS is engaging with the ESB on the monitoring of the site. There have been positive findings in scientific surveys. I undertake to ask the NPWS to engage with the ESB in order to address the particular issues the Deputy has raised, which are very reasonable requests, on the basis that the electricity output from this site is reducing. The Deputy has made a very good suggestion, so we will ask the NPWS, which is part of the Department, to broaden its e…

By way of a structured approach, as I have said, the NPWS is engaging with the ESB and there were positive findings from the scientific surveys. To move the matter forward, we have asked the NPWS to continue to engage with the ESB. Maybe we could set up a meeting between the Deputy and the assistant secretary in the Department with responsibility for heritage to see what can be done in terms of a structured approach. On national park status, there is a process involved but the ESB has done some significant and posi…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 and 29 together. I thank Deputies Canney and Christopher O'Sullivan for bringing up this important matter. Updated rural planning guidelines are being prepared to expand on the high-level spatial planning policy of the national planning framework, NPF, in particular national policy objective, NPO, 19. The objective makes a clear distinction between rural areas under urban influence, which are areas within the commuter catchment of cities, towns and centres of employment, and stru…

I appreciate the sentiments of Deputies Canney and O'Sullivan, on which I will make several points. It is a firm priority for the Government that people can continue to live in rural areas where they were reared. Deputy Canney asked that people be allowed to build and live in rural areas. We want this. Croí Cónaithe is a nationwide scheme. We want people to restore old houses in rural areas. There is now a grant for additional funding for consultancy fees with regard to protected structures such as farmhouses and o…

To respond to Deputy Canney, we want to address the inconsistencies, apart from the underlying principle that we want people to continue to be able to live in rural areas. The guidelines will be key to this. In the planning legislation we are bringing forward we are looking at ministerial statements. There is an inconsistency in the way local authorities interpret. We want to make stronger the directions from Government on planning. As regards timing, we are finalising the rural planning guidelines. It is very impo…

We have been busy.

I am on duty for all of the Topical Issue debates and it is nothing in particular.

I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. It is clear from recent EPA reports that water quality trends need to change, particularly, but not solely, in respect of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, being lost from farmlands into our rivers, lakes and coastal areas. I concur with the Senator's view in respect of the farming community, the members of which are doing great work that is hugely important to our sector. As I say, it is all about water quality and not about any particular sector. I…

I appreciate that.