I am not sure those figures for the transport budget and the budget for roads in 2022 are correct. I will need to go back to office later and check on them. As far as I am aware, we have found additional funding for the remainder of this year for local and regional roads. That is coming from the Department of Transport budget, which will not be fully spent this year and will need to be carried over in part into next year. We also found additional funding for the local improvement scheme for laneways and rural roads…

I appreciate that these are important questions and these are important projects for people living in west Cork but that question is probably best put to the Minister for Transport rather than me, as he would have the up-to-date information. I will certainly let him know the Deputy raised this question today in the Dáil. I am very aware of the strategic framework for land transport investment report as it was commissioned some time ago, when I was the Minister with responsibility for transport. I am familiar with i…

We are happy to have a debate on that matter. It would obviously have to be scheduled by the Business Committee. We are happy to have a debate on climate issues and the impact on agriculture and other sectors. If it cannot be accommodated this week, it will be next week when Members will have the benefit of considering the Government's climate action plan. Let me be clear: there will not be any cull of the herd. That is not a proposal in the climate action plan.

We anticipate herd stabilisation over the next number of years. Some farmers may increase the number of animals they keep, while others may decrease the numbers because they decide to diversify into other areas such as planting trees, engaging with carbon farming and so on We expect, in the round, to see herd stabilisation with the national herd staying at roughly the same size as it is at now. A 10% reduction - not 30% - in bovine methane can be achieved over a ten-year period. Let there be no doubt that the Gover…

The Government acknowledges that the cost of living is rising and that a lot of bills have increased in the past few weeks and months and may rise again into the new year. The Deputy will acknowledge that many of these cost increases are driven by international factors, not Government decisions, and involve prices set by commercial entities rather than the Government. The Government provided in the budget for an increase in the fuel allowance, extending it to more people, increases in welfare and pension payments, …

I am afraid I cannot make a commitment on that on the floor of the House right now, but I know it is being examined by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee. I will let the Ministers know that the matter has been raised here and I will ask that a more detailed response is sent to the Deputy.

Rent caps or rent freezes of any nature are not going to work if they are not enforced. This is acknowledged by the Government. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien has spoken on this in recent weeks and is working on proposals.

As somebody who worked in the public health service for seven years, as somebody who represents a constituency just like the Deputy does, and as somebody who has friends and family working in the health service, I very much understand the recruitment and retention challenges the Irish health services face. I understand such challenges are far from unique to Ireland. It is a problem faced by almost every health service in the developed world. Nonetheless, we are making important progress. The HSE was able to add an …

I acknowledge the difficulties we have had and the delays people have experienced in getting a new passport or having their passport renewed. I am sure we all have had an unprecedented number of queries in our constituency offices about this. I certainly have. It is related to issues concerning the pandemic in that a backlog built up. Also, the staff are not fully back in the passport offices. This is a matter on which the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, is working and on which he will try to make pro…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I am afraid I am not across the detail of it but it came up in conversation with the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, and others when I had the opportunity to visit both Sligo and Leitrim quite recently. I expect to see the Minister, Deputy Ryan, on Thursday, if not tomorrow, and I will let him know the Deputy raised the matter today and ask him to contact her directly.

I will certainly look into the issue and come back to the Deputy on it. My understanding is that an unlimited number of people can engage in indoor sports if they are fully vaccinated, while if they are not fully vaccinated it has to be done in pods, but this does not apply to children under 12. I will check that out and revert to the Deputy with a more detailed reply.

The Deputy is absolutely correct. It is in our interest as a food-producing country, as well as being in the interests of Irish farmers and the food industry, to embrace the climate and sustainability agenda, and I know very many, if not the vast majority, want to do exactly that. As things change in the coming couple of decades, banks and financial institutions will only lend money to businesses and firms they think are scoring well in terms of climate and sustainability, and consumers increasingly will want to kn…

I thank the Deputy. Deputy O'Dea raised this issue earlier. I will follow up on it. It has come up in my conversations with constituents too. We do need to get clarity. My understanding is the restriction does not apply to those under 12 and that unvaccinated people or those with mixed vaccination status can train in pods. I acknowledge that may not always be practical, particularly for a sport such as basketball, but I will look into it and come back to both Deputies with a better reply.

IDA Ireland is committed to building a second new advance technology building in Tralee. I know both Deputy Griffin and Councillor Jim Finucane have been working on the matter for quite some time. The site selection process is under way. Securing planning permission and the construction of the building will be the next step after that. It is intended the facility will be built during the lifetime of the current IDA Ireland strategy, that is, not later than 2024. The advance technology building might be used either …

The power stations at Lanesborough and Shannonbridge were not closed as a consequence of a Government decision. It is important to emphasise that. I know the Deputy is aware of it already. These were decisions by An Bord Pleanála and the courts. What the ESB wanted to do and what the Government wanted it to do was to convert those stations to biomass, such that they would use a mix of peat and biomass and then biomass into the future, which would be a dispatchable form of renewable energy but, unfortunately, for en…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I acknowledge that legislation on assisted human reproduction and international surrogacy is long overdue. Many Members have been lobbied in respect of this issue in recent weeks. It is complex. There are complex legal and ethical questions that arise in respect of for-profit surrogacy services, children being moved from other countries to this country and the right to know who one's biological parents are. There are many very complicated ethical issues that have to be res…

I thank the Deputy. It is important to say at the outset that the vaccines do reduce transmission. They do not eliminate it, but they do reduce it. It is one of the reasons why it is in people's interest to get vaccinated. It will reduce the risk of them transmitting the virus to other people, as well as considerably reducing the risk of them being hospitalised, needing intensive care or dying as a consequence of contracting the virus. Obviously, these are decisions that individuals have to make and parents have to…

A lot of work is underway on the issue of the well-being index. I will ensure that Deputy Ryan receives an update on that. The Gini co-efficient, which is a measure of income inequality, is produced every year by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, with the survey on income and living conditions. Despite a lot of claims to the contrary and a lot of misinformation, in Ireland as a country, almost unusually in the western world, income inequality has narrowed in recent years. We are much more equal than many other co…

Legislation to establish the new corporate enforcement authority is currently before the Houses. The Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2021 was published on 3 September. Second and Committee Stages have been completed in the Dáil, and Report Stage is scheduled for 10 November. Operational arrangements for the transition to an agency continue to advance in parallel, with progress being overseen by a steering group of officials from the Department and the ODCE. The Government's objective, with the supp…

It will no longer be an office of the Department; it will be an independent agency under the remit of the Department. The new authority will have all the necessary human resources required, both civil servants and members of An Garda Síochána, to fulfil its mandate. The budget for the ODCE has been increased by 20% since 2018 and the Department has sanctioned 14 additional staff to be assigned to the new authority. The permanent complement of members of An Garda Síochána will increase from seven to 16 and the total…