I appreciate the Minister's answer but we need those gardaí now. I met the superintendent recently and we had good discussions. I am hopeful that in the future there will be a refocus on community gardaí and getting gardaí back on the ground talking to young people, engaging with communities and residents' associations, which we have not had for a good number of years. We had a brilliant community policing section that was decimated during the austerity years. We have some fantastic gardaí. I will mention one garda…

Will the Minister extend the rural regeneration fund to purchase derelict buildings in urban towns with populations of less than 10,000, and will she make a statement on the matter?

The Letterkenny cathedral quarter group is working hard on the ground to develop the quarter for the town’s community, tourism and employment, but its members do not believe it is fitting into any of the boxes that would help it get grants and other funding. The Department has provided funding under the rural regeneration fund to purchase derelict properties in rural towns, but there is no similar funding stream for large urban towns. My understanding and that of the group is that the only stream for urban areas is…

I would appreciate that. I have been engaging with the group in recent months. Its members are frustrated. They have been applying for different types of funding but their group has been unable to fit into the boxes they are looking towards. Although they are in a larger urban area, they are looking to the rural fund. Local authorities get funding for urban areas, but surely there should be some sort of scheme to meet their needs. The Minister has engaged on many previous requests made of her, so I will revert to t…

I welcome parents of autistic children in the Gallery this afternoon who are angry and frustrated because with less than a week to go to the end of the school year, their children have no school place. It is important to remember these are not just school roll numbers; they are children with rights. There is Rían, Ellis, Noel, Noah Hariri, Noah Lenord, Samuel, Macie, Eamon, TJ, Kapish, Ahmed, Zara Rose, Dara, Alexander, Korbyn, Bradley, Rubin and Ollie. There are other children whose names I do not have who also do…

Sinn Féin will be supporting this Bill. The charities sector plays a very important role in the provision of vital health, education, addiction and homeless services, community development and many other services in Ireland. The Bill has gone through very thorough pre-legislative scrutiny and many of the issues that were raised have been addressed. I thank groups such as The Wheel, the Charities Institute, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and fellow TDs and the Minister who engaged throughout the process. I wa…

It is clearly not in our interests to opt into all of the parts of the migrant pact that will unfortunately tie future Governments into this pact. Ireland can create a fair, efficient and enforced immigration system. I note that Ministers and Government Deputies all day said those same words. Fine Gael has been in power for 13 years and Fianna Fáil for the past five years. They have had the time to do it and they have failed miserably. They are now trying to play catch-up using these words and it is many years too …

More than 299,000 people identified as unpaid carers in the 2022 census. People aged between 50 and 59 were the group most likely to be providing regular unpaid care. Access to care and the quality of care provided presents challenges for all societies. In Ireland, there was an expectation on women to shoulder unpaid care responsibilities. Today, there continues to be a heavy reliance on informal family care for older people and people with disabilities. I have met many carers in my time as a family support worker,…

Dublin West has seen a significant increase in population but Garda numbers have not kept pace. Limerick has a similar population size to that of Dublin West but it has three Garda stations and three times the number of gardaí. There has been a surge in criminal activity and antisocial behaviour in Dublin 15 recently. A key starting point was a double murder on Christmas Eve in Blanchardstown village. Since then, things have further escalated, with over 13 houses damaged by petrol bombs thrown in a targeted way. Th…

I want to raise the issue of school places. I was sent a picture by the parents of beautiful and amazing 13-year-old Dara who was on "The Late Late Show" three years ago advocating for autistic people and promoting awareness and understanding of autism. He is about to complete his eighth year in primary school. He has submitted seven application forms and attended seven open nights and has received seven rejection letters. There have been seven closed doors in seven months of agony waiting for the NCSE to find him …

A number of issues with road safety were alluded to earlier and there is a core problem around all of them, namely, enforcement. I want to start by expressing my deepest sympathy and offering my condolences to all those who have died on our roads. Last week, a young man was killed in our constituency on an electric bike in a tragic incident that occurred in Allendale. Electric bikes are brilliant. I have one and I have been using it for the past ten months. I am hooked on cycling for commuting and enjoyment. Howeve…

At least 13 families in Dublin 15 have no school place for September for autistic children. Ellis, aged five, has no school place. He has applied for 24 schools and received 24 refusals. What is required? His parents need to fill in the school application, give two proofs of address via bills, give his original birth cert and baptismal cert and give proof of his PPS number, along with all relevant reports, such as private speech and language assessment, full autism assessment, two private OTs and public autism asse…

I also welcome the families in the Gallery. I was five years old when the bombs were detonated in Dublin and Monaghan and I lived a short distance away, in Sheriff Street. Growing up in the north inner city, the impact of these bombings left a long legacy of fear in the area and the wider city of Dublin. Everyone knows that this attack in Dublin and Monaghan was carried out by a combined group of British army agents and loyalists, with probable direct logistical support from British security services. What we all k…

Will the Minister report on the community centres investment fund, who has received funding and what stage each project is at, and will she make a statement on the matter?

I welcome that 600 projects have been completed or are at completion stage. Previously, I raised with the Minister the matter of some centres that had encountered unexpected difficulties, so an opportunity for them to continue accessing the fund is important. When the fund was originally proposed, applications amounted to approximately €70 million. While funding has already been allocated and is going through to projects well, other projects worth another €30 million or €40 million still need to be done. I am refer…

It is under way. My wife is on the board now, so I am kept abreast of exactly what is happening in the centre. The board is brilliant and has done incredible work. The fund has been important to the centre. I welcome that we are considering the fund’s future and that it will not just be a one-off. As the Minister said, we do not just do our houses up once and then leave them for 30 or 40 years. We continuously upgrade our houses and try to keep on top of the maintenance work. Many centres missed out on the last tra…

There is a serious lack of school places in Dublin West. At a recent meeting, the NCSE admitted that there are 13 children it knows of who do not have places for September. It knows and admitted that there will be more. We have children transferring to post-primary who have no school places, and even in one school, one child transferring from junior school has been told there is no place in the senior school on the same campus. This is not a shock because we were warned several years ago, when the first public meet…

Despite the Taoiseach’s bluster this afternoon, the Minister has failed to deliver truly affordable homes. Either he is involved in a massive smokescreen of misinformation or is so completely out of touch that he genuinely believes he is delivering affordable housing for people who are so desperate that they will jump on any of his schemes, not to get on the property ladder but to own their own home and get out of their childhood bedrooms and out of the units at the back of the houses that we see all the time. It m…

Irish people are good, decent and caring people. There are thousands of examples of where we have welcomed people seeking asylum into our country. That needs to be acknowledged. I broadly welcome the movement today of migrants who have been living in tents along Mount Street. The situation is not tenable due to the appalling conditions for the migrants and the serious disruptions to the community surrounding Mount Street. We simply cannot have tented camps in our towns and cities. People entitled to asylum should b…

I call on the Minister of State to scrap the plan to increase the cost of petrol and diesel in August and again in October. It is inconceivable that the Government would increase costs for people twice this year at a time when they are still experiencing the cost-of-living crisis. Many of my constituents do not have an opportunity to use public transport to get to work for many reasons. Others cannot do so because services do not exist or they do not have confidence in them. Many workers and families do not have a …