I happened to use parliamentary privilege to put his name on the record.

With regard to the financial resolution before us today, I welcome the Government's intervention in the reductions for excise duty on fuel. Will the Taoiseach reconsider them in the context of home heating oil? The rationale is lost on me. Is it the intention of Government that we would get into the car and put on the heating rather than heat our homes in the few short months that are left in the winter and spring?

As mentioned last week, the programme for Government focuses on how we can improve services and be more responsive to citizens. As the Taoiseach may be aware, the turnaround time for applications and renewals for passports at the moment is totally unacceptable. When I came into the Oireachtas 20 years ago, we had a drop box in Leinster House that empowered Deputies and Senators to facilitate urgent passports for members of the public. Some 20 years later, that box is long gone. It can take months, never mind weeks,…

The service is back in the 1980s.

It is.

It is a waste of money for a service that is not working.

Will the Taoiseach answer the question for a change?

Do not give me the waffle; I have been around for long enough. It is throwing bad money after bad money for a service that is going down.

It was the Taoiseach who took out the drop box too, which was a typical civil servant-led move.

Clearly.

Page 119 of the programme for Government commits that the State will become "closer and more responsive to citizens and their needs". Like Deputy Aindrias Moynihan earlier, I am concerned at the proposal to close all of the national driving licence centres around the country, thus putting all those people who are not capable of operating online, or who choose not to do so, into an invidious position where they will not be able to renew or source a driver’s licence. Is it Government policy to strip out services in t…

I never said it was not.

But not to close services.

Hear, hear. Very unusual.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, for taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. I would have preferred if she was here. Nevertheless, I know he will carry the messages to her. I slightly refined the message from the Topical Issue matter to say that clearly this office will not close. It seems that Fáilte Ireland will open it for what it determines to be the relevant part of the season, which is June to September. Fáilte Ireland lacks ambition and vision in this, despite i…

I acknowledge that the Minister of State is answering on behalf of the Minister. If Fáilte Ireland decides to open the office for only three weeks, the footfall will be there for only three weeks. I am ambitious for our country. I am ambitious for Newcastle West, Limerick, Kildare, Sligo, Donegal and every other place. We are open 365 days a year, 12 months of the year. One would swear from the response the Minister of State read out that this is all about beaches. Of course, we have those in many places in Ireland…

The programme for Government contains a commitment to building stronger and safer communities and specifically priorities visible policing in rural areas. Given the savage attack on Tom Niland in west County Sligo in recent weeks, and given a 27% reduction in resources in the Sligo-Leitrim Garda division, how does the Government proposes to increase visible rural policing? Furthermore, given such a savage attack and others that have taken place in recent weeks and months, will the Government commit to the introduct…

It is a matter of collective responsibility. I am sure the Minister will be able to respond.

I am pleased my constituency colleagues, Deputies Harkin and Martin Kenny, are in the Chamber because I know they agree very much with what I am calling for today, which is the immediate recruitment of an additional four clinical nurse specialists in neurology. As the Minister of State is aware, the Neurological Alliance of Ireland has highlighted that we are 100 neurological nurses short of the HSE's own model of care, not to mention national best practice. This is costing the HSE a great deal of money in the cont…

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. As she said, she could quite easily be standing where I am today and if she was, I doubt she would be happy with that response. I am conscious that undoubtedly if it was her constituency, she would be very much focused on trying to get the issue sorted. I appreciate where she is coming from. Two problems arise. The first is 16 additional nurses were sought as part of budget 2022 with the decision pending in February for the service plan. It has become the practice that t…