I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. I have a response from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine but in quick response to the Senator's two asks on the restriction of use in household gardens I wholeheartedly agree. People can buy stuff off the shelf in supermarkets and garden centres for domestic use. People should stop doing it. I do not recommend people use those products. They are doing huge damage. We saw it in the past with song thrushes and the impact on wild birds. Certainly w…

I thank the Senator. She showed me photographs of some beautiful hedgehogs before we came into the Chamber. They are essential to our biodiversity. It is essential that we have connected habitats for nature. Natural pest control should work far better. Barn owls on a farm are natural predators and pest control in themselves. We need to restore nature as part of this bigger picture. Looking at the pending UK ban, we will have a situation where one part of the island will have a ban on such products but not down sout…

I thank the Senator for raising this really important issue. Yesterday, I opened the Little Houses exhibition in Collins Barracks with the young people from Stoneybatter Youth Service. I urge the Senator, if he gets a chance, to go and look at that exhibition. It highlighted young people's experiences during lockdown of being at home and lots of the myriad issues they faced, in particular being restricted to home life and, perhaps, in some cases, homelessness. I thank the young people I met there. It was a wonderfu…

Again, I agree with the Senator. As a statistic, 2,344 is way too high a number. We want, and the Government is committed, to end homelessness. I reiterate that addressing homelessness is a priority of the Government. Budget 2022 reflects this priority with provision of €194 million in funding for homelessness services. When account is taken of Covid-related costs, this is an increase on the baseline funding provided in 2021. Good progress continues to be made, which is shown by recent homelessness reports publishe…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on the report, Monitoring Adequate Housing in Ireland, which was released on 14 September and prepared by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC. The report focuses on six dimensions of adequate housing that were identified in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, namely, accessibility, affordability, security of tenure, cultural adequacy, quality and loca…

I apologise because I had expected to have a little more time to work on this but the debate arrived a little early for me. Before I summarise, I will try to address some of the points raised by Deputies. Again, I thank all Deputies for their contributions and thank the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the ESRI for this very important report. I want to emphasise that this report is very useful to the Government in terms of our response to Housing for All through housing delivery and through targeting …

I sympathise with the family's circumstances. It is a very difficult case. I offer the following response on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. As the Deputy will be aware, the operations of the passport service were severely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as were many other Government services. Emergency passport services were maintained during the pandemic, which required staff to be on site to process and issue passports. On that basis, and taking account of the Covid protocols in place at the time…

The Passport Office continually examines how to improve processing times, including by examining the process for the verification of supporting documentation for first-time applicants and addressing delays that have been experienced by customers as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the high demand seen in recent months as international travel has resumed. There has also been an ongoing process of reform within the Passport Office since 2016. Enhancements over recent years mean that Passport Online can now be ac…

Detailed design and implementation will begin in the coming months-----

I ask the Deputy to allow me to conclude. I know the response I am giving in my concluding remarks does not give him the answer he requires. Certainly, I will take these matters back to the Minister and the Department. The Deputy made his case very well on behalf of the applicants. It is deeply upsetting for families when they are making plans and travel arrangements. I said in my opening remarks that it is very important that people make their plans early and ensure their passports are in date. With regard to the …

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline the Government's supports for local authorities, with particular reference to Galway county. As the local authority budgetary period will shortly be under way, my Department has notified Galway County Council and all other local authorities of local property tax allocations for 2022 and of a separate allocation as a contribution towards the additional costs that will arise in 2022 as a consequence of the national pay agreements and the unwinding of the fin…

As has been set out in the circular from the Department, when additional information on the updated LPT is available the process will be re-examined. While it is unfortunate that the process cannot take place in advance of the local authority budget process in November, the timeline involved takes account of the needs of property owners and the Revenue Commissioners in conducting re-evaluation. As part of this process, my Department will review relevant material, including the report compiled by the Whitaker Instit…

I am here on his behalf.

It is important that we consider those issues. We should be giving consideration to participatory budgeting where members of the public have a say in how their LPT revenue is spent. All those elements are critical in taking ownership of the revenue that is raised by local government and giving people a say in how it is spent in their own communities. My own local authority issues a newsletter to every household to inform members of the public how their money is being spent, and the projects and other important work…

I agree with the contention about the great County Kildare. I have Kildare blood in me too. It is a fantastic county. I thank the Senator for raising this issue. It is of deep concern to us all. The recent issues at both the Ballymore Eustace and Gorey water treatment plants gave rise to genuine concerns regarding operational failures at these plants as identified by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. At the outset, I can assure the Senator that at recent meetings with the managing director of Irish Water an…

Again, I want to give that assurance the Senator that certainly the learning experiences from this incident have been taken on board. The Minister, as I said, has acted swiftly and the Senator is correct in saying the investment of €1.57 billion is needed. That is sustained investment that is required over a period of time. The investment of €6 billion over the lifetime of the national development plan, NDP, is required because, as we have heard in this House and in the Dáil, we have had a number of incidents throu…

In the time I have I will try to address some of the issues raised by Deputies in the debate. I thank Members for their contributions. Deputy Nash raises a very valid point on the condition of houses where children are living in housing conditions with mould. That goes back to the issue of inspections, which is being addressed by the Government through additional resources this year. He also raised the issue of single households. In response to the point raised by Deputy Cian O'Callaghan on staffing in the RTB, sin…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as an gceist seo. The provision of fire services in a functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Services Act 1981 and 2003. My Department supports fire authorities by establishing policy, setting national standards for fire safety and service provision, providing a central training programme, issu…

As we have outlined, there is a clear commitment that this facility will be included in the capital plan and in that regard Monaghan County Council is following all due process to ensure it can be prioritised. Again, I thank the members of Monaghan County Council and the executive for advancing this. I join the Senator in paying tribute to fire service personnel, who do heroic work in the county and throughout the entire country. On the peat question, I am expecting to receive a report on alternative materials from…

As the Senator knows, the Department of Social Protection pays a range of benefit and assisted income supports, including fuel allowance, which is available to long-term social welfare recipients. On 27 September 2021, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Heather Humphreys, announced the start of the national fuel scheme for the 2021-22 season. A budget of €292 million has been set aside for this season to pay an estimated 370,000 households. The purpose of the payment is to assist the households with their e…