I thank the Minister for her response. There is an assertion out there that GPs are being trained and are then leaving the country. My colleague, Deputy Colm Burke, tells me that is not the case. The turnover of GPs is typically 5% to 6%, which is very low. The Minister has laid out the potential GPs entering the system through the various channels which is really positive. Perhaps the Minister could deal with the assertion they leave as fast as they come in and that they go abroad the minute they qualify. My own D…

I support that, given that there are different models clinicians will want to work under. As the Minister said, not all of them will want to take the risk of setting up a GP practice with everything it entails. The Minister mentioned the chronic disease management programme. That is a classic example of where GPs have helped to make a big difference and it is clear from the HSE's assessment that they have been key in all the outcomes the Minister mentioned earlier. Will the Minister comment on the issue of GPs leav…

This week's report from Women's Aid on domestic violence and abuse is very concerning. Women's Aid front-line teams heard over 46,000 disclosures of incidents of domestic abuse and violence. That is up 17% on last year. There were increased reports of all forms of abuse against women, with sexual abuse reports up 30%. One third of those women in contact with Women's Aid were being subjected to domestic abuse from their ex-partner confirming their lived experience that while they may have ended the relationship, the…

This issue comes down to teacher allocation numbers. It is a matter of great concern to parents that Belgrove infant girls' school, which had an intake of 216 in the 2023-24 school year and qualified for nine teachers, is now down to eight teachers based on the 2024-25 intake. The projected number for September is 219, which is above the number at which it qualified for nine teachers previously. This looks like a temporary aberration and the key is to look at a temporary resource allocation so the school can get ov…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I appreciate his acknowledgement that Belgrove has been through an appeals process. I understand it is an independent process. I welcome the statistics on the improvement of class sizes in primary schools. In this instance, however, Belgrove will go backwards for a period because of this aberration in teacher numbers. I think it is a unique case because the school's numbers are clearly going up again this year. They are actually already up but, with the way the system…

I raise the issue of funding for school facilities, particularly sports facilities such as playing facilities, AstroTurf pitches, renewal of grass surfaces and changing room facilities for voluntary schools. There are some great programmes in the summer works scheme and other newer schemes to do with climate action and preparing buildings for climate change, which are welcome. There is a gaping hole in the funding profile for schools when it comes to outdoor facilities. A key requirement for our schools is to provi…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I welcome his comments and appreciate the investment he has outlined in general terms into school facilities. On the challenge with emergency works, I will give Manor House School in Raheny as an example. It is a very popular girls' school. It has a large AstroTurf pitch beside the school which belongs to it. The surface is really poor. It is an enormous job. I doubt it will qualify for any emergency works scheme because the scale of it is too large, but there is a huge opportun…

I thank the Minister of State.

I have been grappling with why that recent "RTÉ Investigates" documentary bothered me, like others, so much. I think it is because those nursing homes failed to protect and uphold the dignity of some of our older and more vulnerable citizens. Each one of those people was somebody's mam or dad, aunt or uncle or brother or sister. It could be the Tánaiste's parents; it could be my parents. I say to those who are running those particular nursing homes that thanks to "RTÉ Investigates" we have seen what they are doing.…

I wish to raise two issues in this debate, which I welcome. The first is planning certainty. If you talk to any home builder of a medium scale, 20 or more units, they will tell you planning uncertainty is a huge challenge when it comes to being able to build new homes. This includes the additional information processes in local authorities, adding uncertainty to their timelines, and unclear decision timelines in An Bord Pleanála appeals process which adds months of uncertainty to their projects. Judicial reviews ad…

What are the Minister's views on the recently published national climate change risk assessment as published by the EPA?

I read the EPA report. It is a little unexciting - that may be the way to put it. There are four really good priority risks identified well in the report. These include the risk of disruption and damage to energy transmission and distribution infrastructure due to extreme wind, which is exactly what happened during Storm Éowyn. There is a similar risk to communications, which is also what happened with Storm Éowyn. To be fair, the ESB was a lot faster than the telecommunications providers in their response and that…

Just for my own information, how does it work in terms of capital funding? Does that come through the NDP? If the Minister of State does not have the answer now, perhaps he could come back to me later. I am interested in understanding how that funding channel works.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I have a couple of comments. I welcome the fact that the project seems to have worked well. We hear a lot about public sector projects and about the ones that do not work well but this one seems to have come in on time and on budget. It is very positive that the data will be located in Ireland. It is very important that the State has control of its own data because this is an issue for international data centres and jurisdictions. With regard to policy, I support data centres. W…

I thank the Minister of State. Decarbonisation is vital. Data centres are with us for the long term. Let us distribute them; they have economic value. It is a good way to distribute economic value to other regions in the country. Those regions may have better access to renewable energy than the Dublin region or Leinster. In the long term, the Government can take a lead on this. I know the Minister of State has personal know-how in this area. I welcome the Government's work on this. Green jobs, as Deputy Byrne said,…

As a first-time Deputy, I welcome the Bill. The supports it provides are very much necessary. The original residential institutions redress scheme was very transactional and survivors had a really hard time applying for redress. As Deputy Heneghan mentioned, the Artane industrial school was in our constituency. I am acutely aware of the trauma endured by those who attended the school, both while in the school and for many years afterwards. That hurt and the impact of the school are still very much felt in the area.…

In this Chamber on Tuesday night, I asked the Minister for agriculture a question and he confirmed that farmers cannot put excess solar energy back onto the grid. These are the farmers who access the solar capital investment scheme. The Tánaiste or I can put panels on our roofs and we can feed excess energy back into the grid. Farmers cannot do that. It is fundamentally unfair. There are 130,000-plus farms in the country. Many of those buildings can take solar panels. Why can we not encourage farmers to do that and…

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for being in the House today. I am hugely proud of the education system in Ireland, partly due to the fact that there are a lot of educators in my extended family and there is a lot of experience with the educational system. I welcome that there seems to be a move in the education system away from a pure focus on class sizes towards investing in specialist resources, therapies and teams and concentrating these resources on those students and pupils who need them most. …

I echo the support for BusConnects. It is a very important project for Dublin in particular. It cannot come soon enough. I wish to speak about the urgent need for security personnel on public transport services in north Dublin, in particular during evening hours. I thank my local colleague Councillor Supriya Singh, who has raised this matter at many local forums, including Dublin City Council's north-central area committee. I commend Councillor Singh on her ongoing strong advocacy for our local communities. Her mot…

I thank the Minister of State for the update. I welcome in particular the public transport safety working group because all the important players are around the table with the aim of ensuring the safety of passengers. The NTA does its own public transport passenger security reports. I understand that it surveys users. Although the general day-to-day experience is very good, almost half of public transport users in 2024 claimed they felt unsafe at least once on public transport. It is just not good enough that 42% o…