They will not.

I welcome that we are having statements on men's health. I also acknowledge and pay tribute to Deputies Mark Ward and Seán Crowe for talking about their personal experiences. Leadership is important in terms of a lot of the things we are talking about, namely, breaking down the stigma that exists and helping people to overcome the inability to talk about their experiences. That inability is closely related to so many issues around to men's health. Often, there has been a failure to believe and recognise women's hea…

I want to start by expressing my deep shock and sadness at the passing of the young person and injury to others in an apartment in north Dublin yesterday. Obviously there is a criminal investigation and we are limited in what we can say, but there is an additional layer of sadness that this is an unaccompanied minor thousands of miles away from his family and community. As we understand it, this happened only days after arriving in this country. In the fullness of time, of course, there will have to be an internal …

There is a serious credibility issue here. We see it with regard to the underdelivery of the social housing targets and, indeed, what we are seeing now with regard to childcare places. This is an issue that was raised with the Department during the summer. I raised it last week, and we have seen no response, frankly, from the Department on these issues. It is deadly serious for parents. Mothers are unable to return to work because of the lack of childcare availability. Parents are having to reduce hours and, of cou…

The arts and culture budget received an actual cut in budget 2026. It went from just above €300 million to under €300 million. There was a lot of fanfare about the basic income for the arts and that expansion is welcome. However, that fanfare has masked what is happening to arts and cultural funding, which is that there will be less next year than this year. Arts Council funding is crucial to supporting arts practice in Ireland. It is a crucial lifeline in promoting and sustaining the best of artists in this countr…

My Topical Issue relates to Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire and its new school building on Dominick Street in Dublin 1. I stood with Government Ministers and representatives from the school two and a half years ago when the sod was turned in June 2023. The school was supposed to be open in June 2025, but instead we have an empty building site. The Department of education terminated the contract for building works on 24 June 2025. The school community is now about to move to yet another temporary building, having already…

I thank the Minister of State for conveying the written response from the Department. A lot of it is a copy-and-paste job of what was circulated in June of this year. To be very clear, there is no update in this response from the Department, that is zero update as to what is happening the new school building. There is no plan B apparent in the Minister of State's response here. For a school to have been told repeatedly that all efforts were going to be made by the Department to get this new school building built, I…

But the Minister of State is not conveying the information here.

I express my concern about and thoughts for the individuals and staff in the care home in Donaghmede where a very serious incident happened earlier this afternoon. It is a dangerous business in politics when you get people’s hopes up and overpromise and underdeliver. The reason we are here today is because of those commitments that the Tánaiste made when he was the Minister for Health back in 2017. I do not doubt the sincerity of his intentions then, but the clear reason for the failure with regard to that commitme…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to the Chamber. I note that we have mental health campaigners in the Gallery. They are all very welcome.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on World Mental Health Day. Enormous work is being done across the country by many groups, both informal and formal. Progress has been made on breaking the stigma in our communities in recent years. However, it is important to say that stigma is alive and well in workplaces and in the medical profession when people present with a long history of mental health conditions and then seek assistance for physical health conditions but are effectively not afforded the seriousness and con…

My question for the Minister for education relates to Presentation Primary School in George's Hill. Before I get to the problems about the school, I want to say that this is a great school in the heart of the north inner city in Dublin 7. It is a DEIS band 1 school. It probably has one of the most diverse populations of all schools in the country and has a significant amount of need, both social and educational. It has a hugely committed staff, who go above and beyond in ways that will never be aired. Three years a…

I thank the Minister of State for that reply on behalf of the Minister for education. I have to ask him directly. Is he comfortable with children walking on asbestos tiles every day of the week? The tiles were broken by works undertaken three years ago. We know that there is no safe level of asbestos. I have to ask him that direct question. The Minister of State said the project was completed in 2022. He mentioned the good money, €6 billion, being spent on schools. Some of it has been well spent. Some of it, frankl…

They cannot submit it because they cannot get a quote.

There is a new school principal.

Beidh daoine ag féachaint ar an mbuiséad seo inniu agus á gceistiú féin cá bhfuil na gealltanais ó thoghchán 2024. Cá bhfuil an laghdú do theaghlaigh ar chúram leanaí nó na cúirteanna saor in aisce chuig an GP? Cá bhfuil na leabaí ospidéil bhreise agus na gealltanais eile? Beidh daoine ag rá leo féin conas gur féidir buiséad a fhoilsiú agus méid chomh beag sin a chur ar fháil do na daoine atá i mbun oibre sa tír seo. People are looking at this budget today and are asking where are the promises from election 2024, w…

Some 750,000 people are waiting on outpatient waiting lists. Time and again children are being failed because of the huge shortage of therapies and supports to those with additional needs in this country. It is not clear to me that the health budget of €1.5 billion announced today is in any way sufficient to cover existing services, growing demand, a rising population and higher prices. The reality is that we have a health sector that is running to try to stand still. We have been here before with regard to works o…

I want to read back a piece of the speech made by the Minister, Deputy Chambers, today because I found it fascinating he would go to the trouble of saying: For a small country, Ireland offers an extraordinary wealth of talent and entertainment. Our artists, writers and athletes are now leading the way on the world stage... He says all that and then cuts the budget to the arts and culture.

It is incredible. How are we supposed to see artists supported in this country if the Government is going to expand-----

-----the basic income for artists scheme, which we very much welcome, but cut supports to all other parts of the arts sector? I have to ask: is this the vengeance of the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, for the Arts Council and what happened earlier this year? There are very serious questions that have to be asked of the Minister today. Mar fhocal scoir, climate action appears to have fallen off the political agenda for this Government. Already we see a massive underspend in the Department and today we see a mis…