Is mian liom ceist a chur ar an Aire mar gheall ar acmhainní do leanaí i gCiarraí a bhfuil riachtanais speisialta oideachais acu. Mar is eol don Aire, tá uathachas ar 5% de leanaí in Éirinn faoi láthair. The percentage of children with autism has increased threefold in the past decade, with one in every 20 children diagnosed with autism. The education system must adapt to reflect this fact. According to the National Council for Special Education, the number of special education classes in County Kerry will need to …

Today is Karen O'Flaherty's tenth birthday. Karen is autistic and she has dyspraxia and EBD. She and her family moved from Navan to Moyvane in north Kerry during Covid, where she attends Murhur national school. Karen is eligible for place in a special class but at present is in classes with students from other years, including her sister Ellie May. She feels frustrated with the sensory overload. The school and her mother feel her needs would be best served in an ASD unit, a safe place within the school to allow her…

Regarding Karen O'Flaherty, the Department has said in other cases that it will provide modular accommodation where there is insufficient capacity but a new special class is sanctioned. It does not make sense that Murhur has children entitled to a special class and the board of management is in favour of establishing one. According to NCSE guidelines, in certain circumstances the SENO may sanction a class before there are sufficient students if extra places will be filled as students have been identified. The overr…

Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom beagáinín a rá mar gheall ar Mick O'Dwyer. Mick O'Dwyer was like a god when I was growing up in County Kerry; he was the greatest of all time. He was so famous that I thought for many years the anti-internment song, "The Men Behind the Wire", was about the Kerry football team. Lots will be said about how he transformed Kerry football and won eight all-Ireland medals, but after being an outstanding minor, he won four all-Ireland medals and had a very long playing career. He is still, as I und…

However, with disability service improvements, properly resourced occupational therapy, assessments and mental health-----

-----that can be addressed. We were in Mountjoy Prison last week. The prison governor was saying exactly the same thing about people who have issues such as that.

Ordinary workers, families and businesses the length and breadth of the country are crippled by exorbitant gas and electricity bills. Week in and week out, people come to our office who are struggling to afford to keep the lights on and heat their home. Often, we have no choice but to send them to apply for an additional needs payment or to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. That is why the extension of the lower VAT rate on gas and electricity is necessary. It is the least the Government can do. Why is the Govern…

I wish to discuss the overall Bill. I was recently in Liverpool, and in one of the local chip shops, there was a message on the glass screen that read: Cash is our preferred method of payment. With cash, we retain 100% of its value. The card processing companies get 0%. Big banks get 0%. Keep cash alive and support local businesses. Over recent years, organisations that should really know better, such as the National Driver Licence Service, NDLS, the ploughing championships, Iarnród Éireann, the national car test, …

Storm Éowyn devastated entire communities. Households, businesses and farmers suddenly had their access to essential power, heat and water cut off. Many were waiting weeks for it to be restored. People could not wash, turn on the lights or heat their homes. For some, the lack of water and power posed a real risk to their lives. I commend my colleague Deputy O'Reilly on tabling the motion to highlight the total inadequacy of the humanitarian assistance scheme and the lack of transparency and broken promises. People …

I ask the Minister about the efforts his Department is making to increase the resourcing of local improvement schemes and make a statement on it. In Kerry in particular over the past eight years, 225 roads have been improved but that is about 30 per year and, as the Minister probably knows, there are 500 roads on the list, which means it will be 25 or 30 years before we will get to all of the roads on the list.

I thank the Minister for the reply. By way of context, a lot of people in County Kerry, from various areas such as Listry, Astee, Ballyconry, Ballyduff and Dromod in south Kerry, have been asking me about this. There has been a certain amount of kite-flying over the last few months by Government-supporting Independent TDs who have been announcing that there has been an increase in money for the local improvement schemes. However, from the statistics the Minister has quite generously provided to me we see the 2024 a…

Going over the statistics since 2017, as the Minister referenced, it seems to me that Kerry County Council and the roads department there have been quite efficient. I believe that €5,000 less than the full allocation was spent in one of those years. It seems that it was €21,000 less than the full allocation in 2020. It does seem to me that when we subtract the 2024 amount from the combined 2024-25 figure, the actual amount allocated to Kerry has decreased, which is very unfortunate given the 30-year waiting list. I…

I would like an update on the town and village renewal scheme. Will the Minister make a statement on that?

I thank the Minister for the reply. It will be particularly relevant to towns in Kerry, particularly Listowel, Dingle, Kenmare and Cahersiveen. Since Covid, many people have been returning to rural towns to live. However, town centres in Kerry, maybe with the exception of Killarney, are under severe pressure. There is a lot of dereliction in them. Is the Minister satisfied with the progress made to date on the collecting of levies? He mentioned the derelict sites measure. There is a register that county councils ar…

I am glad the Minister brought up the town centre first approach because I see it was in the last programme for Government and it is in the current one. If it was the case there was a priority for town centre first, then the Department of Justice or the Courts Service would not be deciding to close the current courthouse in Tralee and to move it to another side of town without any plan to do anything at all with the building, which is right in the centre of town and has been there since the 1840s. The current propo…

I am thankful for the opportunity to raise this issue. Coventry was once the most Irish city in England and in the early 1960s, there were 20,000 Irish-born people living in Coventry. The industries there attracted Irish people who worked in factories, on the buses and in hospitals. They built the ring road, housing estates and the new cathedral. The Irish community flourished. People came together in clubs, trade unions, voluntary organisations and in their churches. They represented their people and others on the…

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. The support that is provided in the scheme, which is administered by the Department of foreign affairs, is very much appreciated. It is appreciated by the clients, the survivors and elderly Irish people from all over the midlands and also by the staff who help them with their needs. However, the policy within Government is that the Government does not support either capital funding or long- or even medium-term premises. The difficulty with providing these services is tha…

Cuirim fáilte leis an mBille seo chun Údarás na Gaeltachta a bhuanú. Ba chóir go mbeadh plé ar gach cúram a bhaineann leis an nGaeltacht, go mórmhór i gCiarraí. Tá a fhios agam go mbíonn an t-údarás ag plé le cúrsaí cosúil le pleanáil teanga, tionscail agus forbairt pobail. Chomh maith leis sin, ba chóir go mbeadh an t-údarás in ann caint agus díospóireacht a dhéanamh mar gheall ar chúrsaí pleanála, cúrsaí tithíochta, cúrsaí iascaireachta agus an t-ospidéal. Tá an-chuid fadhbanna againn faoi láthair mar gheall ar a…

The most deeply frustrating part of this job is dealing with daily devastating stories of people who exist in utter despair and anxiety because they see no light at the end of the tunnel. When I came into the Chamber today, I received a text from a man in his 60s who was living in his family home which is now being sold. He told me he is in a state of limbo because he has not been on the list for a sufficient number of years. He would need to be 15 or 16 years on the list before he would be considered. He is lookin…

Tá an Rialtas ag magadh faoi na ndaoine, ag cruthú scannal i ndiaidh scannail agus ag cur ár gcuid airgid amú. The sense of anger and frustration felt by people is palpable but the disillusionment and apathy is more worrying as they see their hard-earned money and public money going down the drain. Despite the promises made at election time, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the rural Independent TDs have shown no intention of reversing the culture of waste and incompetence. Despite expressing horror and outrage at the co…