I have been very clear, and have repeatedly said in this House, that housing is the single most urgent and important social issue facing our country at this time. Through Housing for All, we have provided action with a wide range of initiatives relating to social housing, homelessness and affordable housing. Access to housing is fundamental to our security, stability, health and progress as a nation; there is no doubt about that. The Government has been in office for two years. We had two lockdowns, unfortunately, …

More than 6,000 voids have been brought back into use in the past two years as a result of the initiative of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage on that. We want to get to at least 33,000 a year. I think the target this year is about 24,000 and last year, about 20,0000 was achieved, given Covid had an impact on that. Interestingly, from March last year to March this year, we had the highest ever number of commencements, at about 35,000. The war on Ukraine, the cost of materials and commodities a…

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan raised the issue of the divestment of schools. We operate a pluralist model and plebiscites are held in different locations regarding new schools, for example. Certainly, we want to see more divestment, greater plurality and greater access. Significant investment has been allocated to Educate Together, for example, and that will continue.

I apologise. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, has appointed a senior counsel to investigate the issues raised in respect of An Bord Pleanála and one individual on the board. It is important we allow that report to be completed without further comment until the senior counsel brings it to finalisation.

Tá ról faoi leith ag na heolaithe leighis sa chóras sláinte. Bhí an ról sin soiléir le linn na paindéime. Admhaím go bhfuil ceist ann agus go bhfuil siad ag lorg parity idir iad féin agus na clinical biochemists le fada an lá anois. Is í an chaoi is fearr chun na ceisteanna seo a réiteach ná trí cainteanna laistigh den phróiseas atá ann chun ceisteanna den saghas seo a réiteach. I mo thuairim, dá mbeadh cainteanna substaintiúla ann, beimis in ann na ceisteanna seo a réiteach sa deireadh. I thank the Deputy for rais…

First, the health sector management has engaged with the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association, MLSA, through the WRC over the course of 2021 and, more recently, through the sectoral bargaining process under Building Momentum 2021-2022. The Public Service Agreement Group, PSAG, recommended that the parties re-engage at the WRC. That is where it has been over the past week or so - endeavouring to get back into the process. There was further engagement with the MLSA in that regard. Unfortunately, no resolution wa…

That is why we want to get this resolved. We believe it can be if we can get a proper basis for engagement with the WRC or the Labour Court.

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I acknowledge the disruption being caused as a result of strike action. It is having an impact and will continue to affect patients. I do not think anybody wants that and the MLSA does not want it either, to be fair, but this is having an impact. There is a very strong desire to get this matter resolved. What has been going on through informal contacts is to get a basis for participation now, following failed attempts in recent weeks through the WRC and the public servi…

I take the Deputy's point but, as she knows, before a formal invitation issues one would like to know there is a basis for it to be accepted. A lot of informal work and contact goes on all of the time between parties with a view to getting the right basis to facilitate participation in these mechanisms at the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court. Each year approximately half of the graduates from the colleges go to the health service. There has been a significant increase in senior posts and specialist p…

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue and generally for his consistency in raising these issues in respect of Waterford University Hospital and the broader constituency. He referenced the national maternity hospital. That was first announced in 2013. It is now 2022. It is questionable as to whether too many walls have been gone through. It took seven years to get to a point where a decision was taken to build it. In the case of Waterford the issue in recent years has been the cath lab. Work on th…

Some 250 new staff, of whom 25 are consultants, have been appointed to the hospital since January 2020. All consultant cardiology posts are filled. I do not know whether the Deputy is equating the consultants to the pilots.

The consultants might have an issue with that. In any event, there are a fair few pilots there and we want to do more for the hospital.

I have been discussing this issue with the Deputy since January 2020. His issue with me, along with the other Deputies from the south east and Waterford, was to get the second cath lab up and running, and that is happening. We have to get this done step by step. The second cath lab is there. Some 24 whole-time equivalent posts-----

Hold on. Please let me finish. Some 24 whole-time equivalent posts were approved by the South/South West Hospital Group in November 2021 for the staffing of the second cath lab. Therefore, it is not without pilots. It is ridiculous to say it is without pilots.

The start dates for two senior radiographers have been agreed. The start dates are awaited for three cardiac physiologists. Recruitment campaigns for ten staff nurse posts and two healthcare assistants are ongoing. Recruitment campaigns for the position of certified nurse midwives, CNM, 1 and 2 are ongoing. The recruitment of four administrative posts and two porters is under way through the national recruitment process for the second cath lab.

I thank the Deputy for raising this most important issue. The issue of CAMHS and bed capacity is a serious one, particularly the decision in relation to Linn Dara and the reduction of beds there, due to a range of issues, as the Deputy has said. In the first instance, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is working with the HSE intensively to ensure this is a temporary situation and to get it reversed. As the Deputy has said, a number of beds are now not in operation in Linn Dara. The same applies to Merlin Park U…

It has to be resolved but the level of service is also expanding all of the time. The level of referrals is also going up exponentially. Covid-19 without question had an impact on the number of young people contacting their primary care services and their community teams in respect of mental health issues arising out of the pandemic. This has been a feature across the health service in the past six months as we emerge from the emergency phase of the pandemic where there has been an exponential growth in activity an…

I thank the Deputy again for raising the issue. I will take it up with the Minister for Transport and TII. Blanket bans on national secondary roads are too extreme. I am a former Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. National roads are variable. Some are big dual carriageways. Others are quite small and would be classed as regional roads in other countries. Blanket bans are too extreme. I agree that where there is an existing entrance rather than a new one, it should be treated a bit differently for the reason…

First, this has been an interesting debate. What has struck me are the attempts to sort of reverse the truth or to rename the truth and to make a declaration, which the Deputy has been making consistently, in the hope that it becomes the truth and develops into a new truism, which is that 300 years of a lease at €10 per year is somehow not ownership. It is ownership; it is public ownership. The Deputy is endeavouring to create the premise that somehow it is not full ownership. It is, and it is for most sensible peo…

We have secured public ownership of the hospital. That is the point.