I apologise that it took me a while to get to the question.

I thank the Minister for his foresight in seeing where I was trying to get with the question, which is about the issue of deferrals and delays. I can give the Minister the good news that Fidelle actually has an appointment now. I would just make the point that she had three disappointments. On three occasions, she had to isolate from her family. She had three cancellations. This is distressing for people, but she has come out the other side of it now and she is getting that appointment. On the same issue, I just wa…

I have listened to the Minister tonight. I know that he is strong on the whole issue of orthopaedic surgery for children. I am heartened to hear what he has said tonight. I hope that Daire's mum, Shelley, will get some relief from that. As I said, they have had four disappointments. For a child who has that number of complications, as well as the complexity of issues, time is important. They had to travel to Dublin for pain relief to keep him going for another two weeks. All that the Minister is doing on deferrals …

I want to raise the pressing need for school secretaries to be placed on a public service incremental scale and to address the wage increase they need. They still receive no illness benefit, and there is no pension scheme in place for them. School secretaries were, as we know, to the forefront in dealing with the pandemic and making sure our schools stayed open, dealing with parents, students and teachers, with none of the benefits. It is disgraceful that we are in a situation whereby they must sign on during the C…

I ask the Minister of State to outline his strategy to broaden the number of new apprenticeships and the details of the development of seven new apprenticeship programmes in 2022.

I thank the Minister of State. He has outlined some exciting new and progressive courses. It would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity to mention Cavan Institute, which the Minister, Deputy Harris, visited. Not only does it provide academic subjects, it also endeavours to provide apprenticeships in hairdressing and for commis chefs. It is a victim of its own success and space is now required to help it to continue to provide those programmes. Ireland has traditionally lagged behind our neighbours in the sco…

I thank the Minister of State. What measures are in place for those waiting to move forward in their training to tackle the backlog in apprenticeships across SOLAS and the higher education sector, in particular fo the craft apprenticeships?

As the Minister knows, the building was built in 2006 to accommodate 420 students. The college has gone from strength to strength which is totally down to the wonderful staff and management, and the commitment from the students and the ETB. As my colleague has said, there is a greenfield site there. There is no need to find a site or anything like that. The college has more than 1,100 students and it needs that new building. Up to now it has been all over the place with sites in multiple locations. As leases are no…

The medical board of appeal for primary medical certificates resigned at the beginning of the month. The reason cited for the resignation of the board was a unanimous view that the criteria are too stringent and, in its view, exclude a lot of people who should be entitled to the payment. I want to tell the Taoiseach about Dwayne, who at 14 years of age was diagnosed with two serious neurological disorders, one being a brain defect and the second a cyst that has caused significant damage to his spinal cord for the p…

First, I wish to begin by expressing my heartfelt condolences to the family of Ashling Murphy on the tragic passing of their beautiful daughter, who was so full of life and had so much to do in life. There is so much hurt for her family to endure. I wish to express my deepest sympathy to her family, her boyfriend, her friends, her school and her community. Ashling's death has brought the country to its knees in grief and has sharpened the political focus on violence against women in our country. Last October, Mary …

Theatres, music venues and promoters have again borne the burnt of the most recent Covid-19 restrictions. They have been left floundering trying to come up with ways to implement the 50% rules on capacity. It leaves them in the unenviable position of having to put on twice the number of performances on depleted finances or of having to cancel their shows. I welcome the fact the National Campaign for the Arts met Department officials yesterday and that supports will be put in place. I would like to draw the Taoiseac…

At the recent Carrickmacross–Castleblayney Municipal District meeting, members unanimously passed a motion of concern regarding the new N2 project, in respect of which the Government has committed over €100 million under the national development plan. The concern is that no works are taking place on the stretch of road from the motorway to the roundabout in Ardee, which poses the greatest risk to commuters. Could the Taoiseach discuss this matter with the Minister for Transport and re-examine it because there is ge…

I want to raise the issue of bullying in schools. Sadly, it is a feature of school life that students, teachers and parents face despite the Trojan efforts of pastoral teams, management and teachers in schools to address the scourge of bullying. Social media giants have played a huge part in inciting hate speech and have provided a continuous and relentless vehicle to allow bullying to continue on faceless accounts. TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter have proven that self-regulation is no regulation. As a Gover…

I thank Deputy Gino Kenny for sharing his very personal story with us this evening. In the 11 months since the report of the commission of investigation was published the Minister advanced legislation to allow for the exhumation in June, introduced draft legislation to allow access to birth and early life information and to open the commission's archive to over 300 survivors. I acknowledge his commitment in his statement tonight to establishing a national memorial and records centre related to institutional trauma …

The National Transport Authority, NTA, recently launched its plan and strategy for public transport. As a Border Deputy, I am heartened to see the rail line to Navan has been included. My focus is on the Border area and I will continue to be relentless in calling for a feasibility study on continuing the disused line from Navan to Kingscourt. I am delighted that the Government has committed to doing exactly that in the national development plan, NDP. The reason I ask is the obvious potential to improve connectivity…

We have to plan ahead.

I ask the Minister to consider extending the enhanced EWSS supports for childcare providers.

I thank the Minister. He rightly pointed out that this measure was in response to Covid-19 and, importantly, it kept people working in the sector and provided jobs and income. At a higher level, we need to demonstrate how we value childcare in that whole sector before primary school. They do immense work in educating our young children and preparing them for national school. During Covid, we have been haemorrhaging staff from the sector. When that happens, women in particular are challenged and it creates further b…

That is welcome. I call for a whole-of-government approach when the Minister is around the Cabinet table and conversations are happening with the Ministers for Education and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in order that we can start to look at the sector in a formal setting and see it as part of the Department of Education. They are teachers and educators and provide so much value. We need to value them in terms of our State's response to that. I thank the Minister for his reply. The sector, l…

I want to ask the Minister of State his plans to increase competition in the insurance sector and if he will make a statement on the matter.