It is 2%; that is correct.

I am not sure what the budget for home care is, but it has increased enormously in the last few years. I believe it has increased by 40% or 50% in the past few years and has increased under this Government. It would not make sense to take a purist ideological approach and say that it should only be provided by the State, which would mean we would actually have less home care available. We are trying to do both by investing in State-provided home care and by using private providers. To do it only through the private…

I will certainly follow that up with the Minister. Part of my constituency is under a special area amenity order as well and I understand the difficulties that arise. People are generally happy to have their area designated but there are real consequences and costs for people. When the State imposes an order like that, it must be taken into account. I must speak to the line Minister about that.

The Department of Rural and Community Development is currently assessing applications submitted under category 2 of the rural regeneration and development fund. I know Deputy Griffin is very supportive of the application in respect of Killorglin's town centre. It is a project he raised with me and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, before. I know the town centre well, having tried to cycle up that hill on more than one occasion on my visits to Kerry. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is aware of the Deputy's advocacy fo…

I thank the Deputy. As far as I understand, this decision is for the Garda Commissioner rather than being a political or Government decision. In response to the request, I will certainly say to the Taoiseach that the Deputy raised the issue here. I will also mention it to the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee.

I read about that development in the news the other day. It is really encouraging to see regeneration and redevelopment of the Cork docklands coming to life. I do not know enough about the development or who the developer is so I do not particularly want to get into discussions on whether the Government should engage with the developer in question. We are very keen to see elective hospitals up and running in Cork, Galway and Dublin as soon as possible. I am not taking an ideological approach to this at all and if i…

Just under 700,000 people have received their third dose and we expect that number to be over 1 million by early December. Under the current guidance from NIAC, 2.5 million people are now eligible for a third dose. We should bear in mind that even when the vaccine programme was at full tilt, the maximum number of people we could vaccinate in any week was approximately 250,000, so it will take a bit of time to get through the people already eligible for a third dose. It will be well into January or February before t…

I acknowledge the extraordinary impact that rising fuel prices have had on hauliers. Of course, it has a wider impact in increasing transport costs for everybody in society and it is something the Government is very concerned about. It is largely out of our control because prices are driven by international factors. A diesel rebate scheme was introduced in 2013 and further improved in 2020. As the Deputy mentions, there is a cap of 7.5 cent per litre. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, in co-operation with t…

That legislation falls under my remit as the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Work is being done on it. Unfortunately, we do not have a publication date yet for it. I agree with the Deputy's remarks on community energy. We will get much greater acceptance for an onshore wind or solar plant being provided in local communities if people have ownership of it or receive a dividend from it. I hope we can achieve that without having to put through that particular legislation. I agree that if we have communi…

I agree wholeheartedly. We have said for some time that the era of self-regulation is over, but we need to back that up with actions and legislation. A package of legislation is anticipated at European level. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, is taking the lead for the Government on that. At a domestic level, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, is taking the lead on online safety and digital legislation. That is a priority for her and she is keen to introduce it in the House as soon as possible so that there w…

We have scaled up our testing capacity considerably. We can provide tests for about 30,000 people a day now. Unfortunately, with so many people experiencing respiratory symptoms, there is no system in any country that could deal with that number of people with symptoms looking for a test. As has been the case at other points of the pandemic, we now have to prioritise those with a GP referral and close contacts who have symptoms. The National Public Health Emergency Team is examining the testing criteria at present …

As I said earlier, we scaled up testing to the capacity of about 30,00 a day. We brought the Defence Forces, the private sector and the public sector on board. However, there are limitations to capacity when it comes to testing, as is the case in any country of the world, and that is why we have to prioritise. We are prioritising those with GP referrals, those who are symptomatic close contacts of somebody who has been diagnoses with Covid. We have had to do this several times during the course of the pandemic. The…

In line with the lifting of restrictions on public transport, and with effect from the return of schools following the October mid-term break, implementation commenced for post primary school transport services to resume operating at 100% capacity. With regard to post-primary special needs transport services, the Department will work with schools on a case-by-case basis where such services are required to continue operating at 50% capacity. All measures in relation to hygiene, preassigned seating, cleaning and the …

I apologise to the House in advance as I will have to leave before the conclusion of the expressions of sympathy. I will attend a meeting of the trade Council in Brussels later and I have to get to the airport. I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Austin Currie. On behalf of the Government, the Fine Gael Party and the Dublin West constituency, I extend my sympathies to Austin's family and to my colleague and friend, Senator Emer Currie. A pioneer of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland, Austin was…

I thank the Deputy. For many in society, when it comes to the pandemic, things are largely back to normal. Many people are able to go back to their workplaces and schools, colleges, shops and businesses are open. For our hospitals, however, the pandemic is as bad as it ever was. There are 500 people in hospital with Covid today and almost 100 people in ICU. Hospitals are trying to manage Covid care as well as regular healthcare, and there is a big backlog of unmet need, given that non-Covid care was reduced so much…

I thank the Deputy. There will, of course, be engagement between the Minister and the HSE on one hand and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and SIPTU health on the other on this issue of student nurses and student midwives which, as the Deputy said, is an industrial relations issue. It is appropriate there should be further engagement. I do not know when the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, will formally bring a proposal to Cabinet, but there is Cabinet meeting on Thursday and one again next Tuesday, so I imagin…

I thank the Deputy for his questions. Nobody knows for sure what we are going to face into this winter with the health service. Much of that will depend on the pandemic and on whether cases peak and fall, continue to rise, or level off at a certain point. Looking around Europe and at other parts of the world, it is hard to know for sure what trajectory we are going to follow. We will respond to it in a strategic and nimble way. What is clear is that our health service, our hospitals and our primary care are going t…

At the outset, it is really important to say that all four of the vaccines that have been used in Ireland are very effective, perhaps not as effective against transmission as we hoped but extremely effective in reducing hospitalisation and the need for ICU care and against death. What is remarkable is that, in the past two weeks or so, we have had as many cases of Covid detected as we did in the first six months of the pandemic, yet we have not seen comparable numbers, thankfully, in our hospitals and ICUs, let alo…

I thank Deputy Pringle for raising this issue and acknowledge his advocacy on this very sensitive matter. Anybody who has read or listened to reports on this issue will have been shocked and very upset at what happened and will struggle to understand how something like this could happen. When I heard about it, I was shocked and appalled that anything like this could happen anywhere at any point in time under any model of care, and for so long. My thoughts in the first instance are with the individuals and families …

We will certainly do that. The Government will press the HSE and the Garda to have this report published. It needs to be published for two reasons. The families concerned have a right to information and a right to know what happened, who knew what at what point, and how they acted. Anyone involved in this, including some of the staff members - some may have a case to answer and others may be entirely innocent - also have a right to know what is in this report. As the Deputy rightly points out, it is essential that …