I will ask the Minister again whether he can give the House some indication as to what this project will finally cost. I am sure he has that information by now. The initial cost was to be €2.2 million. A total of €6.4 million has been spent on it so far. Questions remain as to what steps the Department has taken to investigate this. Has anyone been held accountable for the fact that there has been a €4 million overspend on money that is so important? We all appreciate the importance of education in this State and t…

Yesterday, the cross-party interest group for family carers, of which I am co-chair along with Deputy McGreehan and Senator Tully, met in the audiovisual room. We heard from family carers Angela Briggs and Matthew Murphy about the 24-7 care they provide for their loved ones. They outlined the stress some 34,000 carers went through recently and are still going through after receiving tax demand letters from Revenue. The Tánaiste knows carers save the State over €20 billion each year. Will the Tánaiste let us know wh…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter, which is very important to the constituents in Kildare South. It is always good to start with some good news. I want to put on record my thanks to the Minister and the Government for the announcement of three additional special classes in Kildare South in St. Evins National School, Monasterevin, St. Conleth's National School, Derrinturn, and Scoil Bhríde in Lackagh. They are most welcome indeed. A number of weeks ago, I raised the concerns of the community of L…

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed reply on behalf of Minister of State with responsibility for special education. I put on the record that of the 11 classes he has announced for Kildare, eight of those are in Kildare North. I am asking for Kildare South, the area I represent. There is a huge and growing population in Kildare. On Monday we were told we have to add another 50,000 to that population. That is okay too but we do not have the special classes. Every time I ask a question in here, the reply I …

I never said that.

I never said that either.

The division is postponed until the weekly division time next week.

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I will move our amendment, if that is in order.

I will not move it then. As Labour Party spokesman on social protection and disability, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important motion. I sincerely thank colleagues in the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. It is very timely given the cold and unpredictable weather we have been experiencing over the past number of weeks. The Labour Party has an amendment to this motion to ensure all disabled citizens are captured within the motion. I welcome the spirit of this motion, and our amend…

I welcome the chance to speak on the Government infrastructure plan. I want to outline a number of issues that have arisen in my home county, Kildare. Last Monday, councillors in Kildare County Council discussed a variation of the current Kildare county development plan to cater for an additional 50,000 people in the county over the coming years. As everybody in this House knows, Kildare is a very welcoming county and its infrastructure has played its part in population growth; however, the problem that homeowners …

I welcome the Minister to this House and the opportunity to discuss the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2025. I am very conscious that the main aim of this wide-ranging piece of legislation is to promote the welfare of children who may not receive adequate care and protection. No one in this House could ever disagree with that aim. As the Minister said in her opening remarks, this Act has been amended a number of times and it extends over a number of key areas like childcare, foster care, residential care and child pro…

I am glad the Minister of State is here today because he will know this is not the first time I have raised issues around the car parks that are the M7 and N7. I have been speaking about this for a number of years and An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will know that. We have had a number of conversations on this and what we can do to solve the problem. This morning, I left my home at 6.30 a.m. and I walked through the doors at 10.05 a.m., having had to take a small phone call on the way. I am among thousands of commuters …

Up Kildare.

I welcome the chance to speak to the Minister on this issue. I want to raise a number of local issues in my area of south Kildare. In recent years there has been very welcome development in the Allenwood and Kilmeague area, after long representations by many public representatives. We are having continuous problems during this work with outages and a lot of businesses and homes are suffering. Will the Minister look at this and give an update to the locals in the area? Not for the first time, I want to raise the iss…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to entitle customers with certain medical conditions to make use of staff toilet facilities in retail establishments in certain circumstances, to provide for redress where the entitlement is not met, and to provide for connected matters. I am delighted to introduce the Equal Status (Access to Toilet Facilities) Bill 2026 to the House today. Some people simply cannot wait until they get home to use toilet facilities. This is particularly true for thos…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I wish to raise again the carparks that many of our motorways have become as they approach Dublin. Specifically today, I raise the urgent need to provide park and ride and secure park-and-share facilities at strategic points along these motorways. On my way in to Dublin this morning I counted 15 cars parked at the hard shoulder at the Ballitore M9 junction. These motorists are car-pooling and reducing the number of cars on these motorways. The same is happening at the Castledermot junction and, I am told, at other …

Will the Minister and her Department provide additional and multi-annual funding for therapeutic and counselling supports, such as play therapy? Will the Minister make a statement on it?

I thank the Minister for her reply. We can all agree, as we have done previously, that great work is being done by all the family resource centres. The Minister has, in fairness, expanded and created a number of new centres. The problem I am hearing is that the references and referrals coming from many organisations, such as Tusla, the HSE, CAMHS and local authorities, are overloading family resource centres and they are having great difficulty in meeting the demand that is there. We all know the benefits of play t…

I appreciate that. I am highlighting this today because I have been speaking to a number of family resource centres. The number of referrals they are getting is causing complications for the services they are offering. I am highlighting this today to make the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, aware of the need for additional resources in our family resource centres. They have now come to a situation where there is an overload on what they can provide. The other point is the multiannu…