I welcome the Minister of State. My Commencement matter relates to the loss of commercial rates as a result of the closure of Lough Ree power station in Lanesborough in 2019, with which the Minister of State will be quite familiar. It has been a major blow to employment and local economic activity in the regions of County Longford, Offaly and Shannonbridge, which suffered a negative impact from the loss not only of commercial rates but of the plants themselves, as well the potential loss from suppliers of the plant…

I thank the Minister of State for that commitment to funding but, as I stated, multi-annual funding is needed. I have to come in here every September and bring this issue to the fore in order for it to be announced that we are getting the funding. That is not acceptable. Mr. Kieran Mulvey, the just transition commissioner appointed by the Government, recommended that a multi-annual arrangement be put in place up to 2026. That is the minimum needed. We do not want our finance department to be doing the books again n…

I support Senator Kyne's proposal for the Minister for Health to come to the House to discuss staffing levels throughout the HSE. There is a particular issue within the disability teams throughout the country in regard to occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and the lack of qualified people coming out of the colleges to fill positions. It is an important issue. We are going to discuss it at the Joint Committee on Autism in the coming weeks. With regard to the budget, as media spokesperson, I welcome th…

I welcome the Minister of State. I also welcome today's budget which is very fair and targeted. I compliment the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform on their prudent management of the economy, which means we have the funding in place to deliver a budget today. Earlier today, the Minister cited the example of a single pensioner living alone in receipt of fuel allowance who will receive €2,375 between now and the end of 2023. That is extremely positive and it is an example of the targeted funding…

I want to raise a couple of issues on behalf of groups within my community. I welcome the recent announcement by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, of a community centres investment fund for the refurbishment and upgrading of much-needed community facilities across Ireland. A sum of €15 million has been set aside but I understand that applications have been made for projects totally more than €70 million . In that context, I ask that extra funding be provided for this fund so that w…

I welcome the Minister. I apologise for being late to the debate as I was at another meeting when the Minister was speaking. The reality is this whole issue is about children. It is not about concessionary or non-concessionary tickets but about children getting to school. We are in a situation where the country is at full employment. We need to be at full employment and we need people to fill these jobs in our economy, yet families are left in a situation where one parent has to give up a job. I know of a family on…

I want to raise a few issues. The first concerns the HSE, and specifically the children's disability network teams. There is a crisis across our disability network teams. I will cite an example from my own county, which has a population of 45,000. In terms of posts filled, there is one psychologist, 0.5 in speech and language therapy, 0.5 in occupational therapy, 0.8 in physiotherapy and no social worker for the past two years. There are more than 230 children waiting for an assessment of needs and more than 700 ch…

I thank the Acting Chairperson. The Minister is very welcome. I will be brief. I concur with Senator Craughwell's comments. I served on a local authority for a long number of years and know that there is a wealth of experience among local authority members. They are the people who are on the ground every day of the week. They can feed into this in terms of providing an insight into the views of the people on the ground. For many years we have had local representatives on various bodies, including regional technical…

I welcome the Minister of State. This Commencement matter concerns the need to reopen Lough Ree power station. That is the issue I wish to discuss. Lough Ree power station in Lanesborough, County Longford, closed nearly two years ago, seven years ahead of what was to be a just transition from brown to green in 2027. The plant has the capacity to generate 100 MW per hour. We are in the midst of an energy crisis. We hear talk in the media of blackouts. I understand the ESB has drawn up a list of towns that will face …

Two words the Minister of State used near the end of his statement were "expected shortfall". He is admitting or stating here what we know will happen, that is, there will be a shortfall in energy. The alternatives we are talking about and a lot of the proposals that are being mentioned are all years down the line. The just transition was due to happen in 2027. We have a situation where the power plants were closed at the end of 2020. We have a facility there that can produce 100 MW per hour of energy for the netwo…

The Minister is very welcome. I want to relay apologies on behalf of Senator Cassells, who could not be here for unavoidable reasons. I am speaking on behalf of both of us. We were disappointed that we did not have this report prior to our discussions on the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill. However, I thank the Minister and note the time she gave to our discussions on that legislation, which were substantial. I thank her for being here for all the discussions, which took 25 or 26 hours. I also thank the com…

Next Tuesday at 2.30 p.m.

I second Senator Ahearn's proposal. The issues we faced over the summer, in August in particular, had to do with school transport. This has been highlighted. The Government made a commitment to provide free transport for the year. We have neglected to provide transport for some and this is not acceptable. From our children at home I am aware of two routes to Moyne Community School and the secondary schools in Ballymahon. I know of one family where the father drives to Dublin at 6.30 a.m. and the mother drops their …

Well said.

I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on the significant work they have done in putting the scheme in place. A significant number of other facilities in the affected counties, such as community centres and sporting clubs, are not covered by the scheme. Could it be brought back to Cabinet that the Department with responsibility for sport or the Department of Education consider schemes to cover these facilities with a grant? This could be a special sports capital grant. T…

Hear, hear.

Like Senator Ahearn, I will never apologise for representing where I am from which is Longford. I also want to raise the whole issue of the CLÁR funding scheme which is very beneficial to community groups in my home county. I am aware that 15 applications have been submitted by Longford County Council to the Department and these schemes will be looked at over the summer months. I hope and ask that perhaps extra funding can be obtained to ensure that a high number of those applications will be successful. The realit…

I apologise for being late to the debate. As Chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism, and as a parent, I hope that we never have to invoke section 37A. We should not have to. This country should have an inclusive educational system and we should not need to introduce legislation to ensure that a child is educated in his or her local community with his or her siblings. Unfortunately, that has had to be done in recent months, particularly in Dublin. It is well documented in the media that nearly 100 familie…

It is a fact that the last two times that section 37A was invoked it took, respectively, four months and up to 18 months of discussions. We have children who need a school in September so discussions cannot take up to 18 months to decide whether we have schools places for 100 children and their families. That is why the process is being streamlined back to eight weeks to prevent a situation where there is a lack of places. The NCSE is charged by the Government and the Department to identify where need exists and, t…

I thank the Cathaoirleach. The Minister of State, Deputy English, is very welcome. I wish to raise today the issue of the lack of home school community liaison co-ordinators in County Longford, and in particular, in the various towns in that county. The scheme was set up to improve the educational outcomes of children through supporting both their parents and their guardians. I will give a brief outline here of the number of schools and of the number of co-ordinators in County Longford, namely, St. Joseph's Nationa…