The Government is engaging with all those who have expressed a view on this issue. The finance Bill will be published. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, will give very careful consideration to all the issues that have been raised. However, we have to ensure that we can fund a €2.7 billion bill for the mica issue. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has a report on his desk relating to apartment defects, which could cost up to €2.5 billion to resolve. Between thos…

I join with the Deputy in congratulating the Irish team, including Vera Pauw and goalscorer Amber Barrett. We could not but be touched by Ms Barrett's tribute and the way in which she dedicated her goal to the victims in Creeslough. I attend underage girls' soccer matches every weekend because my daughters play. I know of the fantastic work that is being done at grassroots level. I assure the Deputy that the Government will support the FAI in all the efforts that are under way to strengthen the supports for girls' …

I acknowledge that this is an issue the Deputy has consistently raised. Leaving social housing income limits aside, it should not be the case that a family with two children with special needs are sleeping rough so I ask the Deputy to please provide us with the details of the case so that we can ensure it is followed up on. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has increased the limits for five different counties. From speaking with him recently and discussions at a Cabinet committee, I believe he is very close to …

I thank Deputy Canney for raising this issue, which I know is of great local importance. The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is aware of the issue and has agreed to meet with Deputy Canney and other Oireachtas Members this evening to see what progress can be made on it.

I know the importance of SENOs and the relationships they have with parents in helping them to secure an appropriate school place in communities all over Ireland. We provided increased resources for the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, in the most recent budget. That will result in an increase in the number of SENOs all over Ireland. If the Deputy provides me with the specifics of the case in south Tipperary, we will take it up. There is a new CEO in charge of the NCSE which, as I have said, has been g…

I am not familiar with the detail of this issue in respect of radiation therapists but I will raise it with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, who will get an answer from the HSE and revert to Deputy Harkin. I will make the point that we have increased overall staffing numbers in healthcare by 15,000 over the past two years. This is the biggest increase in staff since the HSE was established and includes 4,500 nurses and midwives, 2,300 health and social care professionals and 1,400 doctors and dentists. The De…

We fully appreciate the importance of connectivity for the mid-west region. I commend the management of Shannon Airport on its recovery, which is now well advanced, following the very dark days of Covid-19. Government has provided much support and will continue to provide support to Shannon Airport through the regional airports programme. In light of the pressure Dublin Airport has been under, it makes sense to support our regional airports, including Shannon Airport and Cork Airport. I will follow up on the specif…

Some of the scenes we have witnessed on our television screens and social media feeds in recent days have been utterly shocking. These are attacks on civilian targets, on cities and residential buildings. What is happening there is appalling and subhuman. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to respond to the specific question the Deputy has asked but we have been very clear about whom we are politically standing with, united with and acting in solidarity with, that is, the Ukrainian people.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am aware that the Women of Honour issued a public statement yesterday. I heard some commentary on that in the media last evening but I am not fully across all the details. When the review was established, it was regarded as a critical first step. It is significant that it has not attracted the support of the women themselves. That is a concern and a disappointment. I will relay the Deputy's comments to the Minister for Defence and ask him to respond to her directly. It w…

Those workers are in touch with us as well. I know many of them are very frustrated at the delay in these payments being issued. It should be acknowledged that almost 124,000 staff have received the €1,000 pandemic recognition payment. In essence, those are the people directly employed by the HSE, which includes many section 38 voluntary hospital staff, but many others are waiting. The Deputy identified a number of different categories. This issue has been discussed in recent days at a political level. It is a prio…

The scheme the Minister for Finance announced on budget day, which is still being developed, is a broad-based scheme to support businesses with the very high energy costs they are going to be facing over the period ahead. It is based on the relative increase in the per unit price of energy for a particular business. Many of those companies the Deputy has identified, because of their scale and their ability to enter into longer-term futures contracts and so on, may not qualify. However, it is a broad-based scheme. I…

I know this is an important issue and it is one we are committed to addressing. It is undoubtedly the case that a significant number of contracted dentists have chosen to opt out of the dental treatment scheme. It has caused many problems and delays for medical card patients around the country.

The Minister for Health has approved new measures to provide for both expanded dental healthcare for medical card holders in the dental treatment scheme and increased fees for dental contractors. Those came into effect on 1 May. In addition, further funding has been provided in the recent budget to assist the HSE in providing care to adult medical card holders who meet the HSE criteria for emergency care.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I have seen some correspondence coming to my constituency office about this from people pointing to individual examples of what this means for them. It is an issue that the Minister for Finance is very conscious of and will be engaging with over the course of the progression of the finance Bill. I ask the Deputy to engage directly with the Minister for Finance as that Bill is published and on Committee and Report Stages but I will raise the issue with him and relay the con…

The Minister for Education and her officials are working on the detailed design of that scheme and how it will be operated in practice but I was certainly clear in my own mind and in the budget announcement on the day that it was in respect of publicly funded schools. That was the basis of the discussion we had but it is now a matter for the Minister for Education to work through the detailed design of the scheme and I am sure she will take on board the points made by the Deputy.

I reassure Deputy MacSharry and all colleagues in the House that the Minister for Finance will give careful consideration, as will the Government, to all of the issues that have been raised regarding the levy. That said, we must raise money to ensure we can fund what is a major remediation programme in respect of mica and the State must make decisions as to how it responds to the apartment defects report as well. Deputy MacSharry and other Deputies have made a number of points in this regard and I am sure he will e…

I move: That leave be given by the Dáil to introduce the following Supplementary Estimate for the service of the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2022: Vote 29 — Environment, Climate and Communications ( Supplementary Estimate ); and Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth ( Supplementary Estimate ).

In addition to a €4.4 billion package of temporary supports to be provided this year, budget 2023 provides for additional core expenditure of €5.8 billion. This significant commitment, which will bring overall core spending next year to €85.9 billion, is designed to support households and businesses in a challenging economic climate, and to invest in public services and critical public infrastructure in a fiscally responsible and sustainable manner. In order to promote economic equity, equality of opportunity and s…

This is the expenditure report. It is not terribly glossy, but it is full of useful information. The way that the distribution analysis is presented is there is the 2022 impact and then, separately, the 2023 impact. The Deputy is asking to strip out the 2023 measures that are cost-of-living related, such as the €400 energy credits that will apply next year, the continued reduction of VAT on utility bills, excise reduction and the continued reduction in public transport fares. I will provide that analysis to the Dep…

If it were the case that we only provided €12 a week increase in the core weekly rates and did nothing else, then the Deputy’s conclusion would be a fair one. However, of course, that is not the case. The increase in the core weekly social welfare rates is being supplemented by an extensive range of once-off payments that will start to flow within the next short number of weeks. People look at this in the round. They want to know what benefits they are getting from the budget, how much cash they will receive in the…