Sewage, gabh mo leithscéal. Níl an t-eolas sonrach agam ach déanfaidh mé fiosrú ar an gceist. Is olc an scéal é nach bhfuilimid in ann dul ar aghaidh leis na seomraí breise. Déanfaidh mé fiosrú leis an mbardas agus leis an Aire féachaint an féidir linn rud éigin a dhéanamh go gearrthéarmach chun infreastruchtúr a chur i bhfeidhm agus slí a aimsiú chun go mbeimid in ann na seomraí breise a chur ar fáil.

I was there on the day we announced the €50,000, which was warmly welcomed by the Deputy and by everybody else. Fair play to the Deputy, he has doubled his bet now in terms of the request. It was the first time ever a response of this kind came from Government and it was part of wider financial supports that were allocated to cancer centres across the country. Yes, Cancer Connect does extraordinary work around the entirety of County Cork where it brings patients to services. The Minister for Health has a lot of pre…

The State is not being forced here; it is being very responsive. There are other factors afoot that have frustrated the State's endeavour to bring this to a conclusion. I have to put that on record. The State is wide open and wants to get this resolved. We have established a mediation process. There have been two mediation processes and we have a judge appointed. Apart from all of that, we have already made it very clear that all health services are available now to anybody affected by thalidomide until the end of …

There is a process there that hopefully we can bring to a conclusion. I can talk to the Deputy if he wishes and bring him up to speed on it.

I thank Deputy Aird for raising this issue. Deputy Collins raised a similar issue relating to financial services earlier. The Central Bank has issued a new consumer protection code relating to technology more generally. Technology and financial literacy are two very important programmes that are under way to try to educate people in order that they do not fall foul of these scammers and those who want to defraud people and engage in fraudulent behaviour. On all levels and across different Government Departments, co…

The Deputy knows well that the new procedures and protocols governing protected disclosures have been processed under the policy in place to handle such matters. I have been assured that the independent investigation by GSOC, which is investigating this matter, will be completed in due course, notwithstanding the time already lapsed since the protected disclosure was first made. Obviously, the various bodies - the Director of Public Prosecutions and GSOC itself - must continue their investigations before I can comm…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue of safety in the context of the safe routes to school scheme. I take on board what he has said. I will ask the Ministers responsible to look at the scheme. The Deputy has said it is taking too long. He mentioned that 421 schools are involved.

We will see what we can do to expedite that.

The new school in Carrignavar will be open. It may not be ready for September - it has been announced already that there will be a contingency plan for students who will be in a temporary building in Fermoy - but the works are progressing on Carrignavar. The site is an old primary school, as the Deputy knows.

That is agreed and is progressing. Again, the number of special classes provided in the past four years has doubled and the number of students attending special classes has gone from-----

-----9,000 to 19,000. The population is increasing, as are the numbers identifying with special needs. Our job and obligation is to provide every child with a place and that is the objective. I am now informed - as of the latest this morning - that up to 4,000 additional places will be provided this year from the beginning of September. The aim is for every child in the coming weeks to know their place. That is the objective. I spoke this morning to the Ministers for Education and special education-----

What is the name of the school?

I will bring this to the attention of the Minister of State for special education, Deputy Moynihan. He is working flat out with schools, as is Minister McEntee, with a view to getting solutions on the ground in given locations where the need is greatest. If the Deputy sends me the details, I will forward them to the Minister of State to pursue the case. If there is a blockage, we will see if we can unblock it. Every effort is now being made to make sure every child has a place.

This is no consolation to any parent or child seeking a place now but there has been an exponential growth in the number of special classes in the country over the past four years. Over a five-year period we now have 19,000 children attending special classes. Five years ago that number was 9,000. There has been constant expansion of the provision of special classes. In the past four years 11 new special schools have opened. This year alone there will be five more. As I said earlier, close to 4,000 special education…

The Ministers is not here. However, I will raise this issue with him. I can well recall there was a determined attempt nearly two decades ago to create a financial services presence, hub and footprint in the south east, in particular in Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny. State Street opened in Kilkenny. To a certain extent that got traction. It is disappointing that BNY has made the decision it has made. I was not involved in the discussions between the IDA and the company. The company generally tends to make these d…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 16, inclusive, together. We are retaining the child poverty and well-being programme office in the Department of the Taoiseach because we know we need to continue to build on the work to break down silos between Departments and drive delivery. We will not be able to make a decisive impact on child poverty without a whole-of-government and whole-of-society response. From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Poverty and Well-being 2023 to 2025 was published in August …

There are a number of questions there. Deputy McAuliffe started on the model that has been developed in the north east, and there is something similar in Ballymun. I have asked my officials to look at broadening that model out to certain areas, as we had before. In previous times, under the former Minister, Pat Carey, or Noel Ahern and others, going back to Pat Rabbitte’s time, the drug task forces were established in about 12 areas across the country. I have seen at first hand the impact of the north east inner ci…

There was a need to target that too because it was being used by some local authorities as a catch-all and maybe not targeted at those who were about to become homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.

It was never meant to be a scheme to just buy second-hand properties. The Minister is engaged in refining and targeting that. I will talk to the Minister in respect of that case. It is not that the person was not two years on HAP but that the house was not in HAP for two years----

Again, the idea of being in HAP means you are within the social housing provision and the prospects of homelessness are higher there, so the idea is to target the resources there. I will talk to the Minister in respect of that case and come back to the Deputy. In response to Deputy Ó Fearghaíl, in fairness, "a lot done, more to do" is correct. There needs to be more focus on what the Deputy described as dysfunctional families and the multidisciplinary teams I spoke about earlier in the north-east inner city. Those …