I will not delay. I look forward to this Bill coming before the committee in April.

Will the Minister address the challenges rural communities are facing in relation to increased costs in transport?

While acknowledging that, the Government should also acknowledge that rural communities face increases in costs and a fairly patchy, unintegrated rural network that is not accessible or flexible. It is important to develop initiatives and resource areas that are further from the major urban areas and improve and expand public services in remote rural areas. The additional money required to achieve the minimum essential standard of living ranges from an estimated €142 a week for rural couples with younger children t…

The recent arson attacks on buildings in our communities across the length and breadth of the State are to be condemned in the strongest possible terms, irrespective of what future plans were in place for those buildings. Peaceful protest is a right we must protect and celebrate in an open democracy. Arson is a criminal act that puts lives in danger. The people who claim to put Irish people first are the same people who are cheerleading these attacks. They put fire brigade officers at risk of serious injury or wors…

Children and young people in this State deserve better mental health services and should not have to wait for a significant length of time to access them. Children with dual diagnoses of mental ill health and an intellectual disability are falling through the cracks, as are neurodiverse children. This is something I saw at first-hand as a child and family support worker in Tusla. I commend all those working in the area of youth and children's mental health. They are doing a very important and demanding job. I recei…

I welcome the families, including children and young people, in the Visitors Gallery listening to this debate. The Minister talked about ongoing failings. Seven years ago, it was promised that this would be dealt with within months, yet the Minister is standing here tonight talking about ongoing failings. That means he knows about them and that nothing has been done to help the children in pain. Three hundred and twenty-seven children have been forced to suffer in pain for years, watched by helpless parents and the…

It is clear Connolly Hospital is in crisis. Everybody will be shocked by some of the reports that have come out in the past week alone. I raised this matter with the Tánaiste some weeks ago when a concerned member of staff contacted me about the closure of the endoscopy unit in Connolly Hospital, which had been under serious pressure. I wrote to the hospital and received an email in reply stating, "As part of the HSE Winter Unscheduled Care Planning in Connolly Hospital, elective procedures have been temporarily re…

I thank the Minister of State for his answer. I expected statistics, including the extra 78 beds, to be mentioned. It is completely understandable that there will be emergencies and pressures at times. There will be times when the hospital is overcrowded due to certain circumstances, whether it be a flu epidemic or respiratory issues. However, this is not something that happened in January or February 2024 or December 2023. In 2018, in an article in the Irish Independent , the current Minister of State, Deputy Jack…

As the Minister of State will be aware, one of the biggest overheads for a small business is the cost of heating and electricity. I will raise the particular issue of small businesses operating as social enterprises. I refer to small cafes, community centres, community crèches, kids' clubs and recycling and upcycling businesses. There is a vast range of small businesses out there. The core objective of social enterprises is to provide community services on a not-for-profit basis. Money earned by these small busines…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. There is no doubt we are facing a serious surge in deaths and injuries on our roads. My thoughts go out to the families, friends and communities of those who have died or been injured on our roads. I appeal to everyone to be conscious that road safety measures are there to protect lives - their own and the lives of others. However, the Government is also responsible for safety on our roads. It is responsible for the implementation of laws but, unfortunately, it is fai…

Last week I raised the issue of the endoscopy unit in Connolly Hospital and I received a message from a frustrated member of staff. It said that Connolly Hospital does not have enough beds for the population it is serving, the emergency department is under huge pressure all the time and the numbers being returned do not reflect the true situation. The hospital is using the line that procedures are being cancelled due to the winter initiative. If that is the case, then the winter initiative has been going on since l…

That is not what is being said by the staff.

I thank everyone for the work that has been done on this and the sustainable development goals, including those on the committee and all the people who attended. The Cathaoirleach has done excellent work over the past year. It has been a really useful exercise and shows what we can do when we look at the recommendations. I will go through some of them briefly to highlight a few issues and Deputy O'Rourke is also going to go through some of them. In recommendation 2 in particular the committee “recommends that parti…

I also thank Deputy Gino Kenny for bringing forward this Bill. I know I have said this before, but it needs to be said again and again that the so-called war on drugs has failed utterly to achieve its objectives and has caused untold damage to our communities. How do we know? It is because we see it on our streets and in our communities, pubs and clubs. In fact, pretty much anywhere we go there are signs of drugs use. I am not talking about the most devastating, destructive and abused drug in our country, the legal…

I ask the Minister of State about the plans that are being put in place to increase funding for community services programmes, CSPs, when the new minimum wage legislation is put in place as I hear that a lot of projects would struggle to meet the current minimum wage.

I welcome the news because I know a number of the projects that were in touch were concerned. I heard that one project faced a €13,000 increase with regard to the minimum wage. The new needs-based model is important and it is working. I have said on numerous occasions - and still believe - that we should move to the model whereby every project is brought up to the minimum wage in the funding structure we have and ensure that those projects that have the ability can bring the wage up to the living wage. That is wher…

I listened to the Minister's answer regarding funding that has already been approved, which is fantastic. I know the Minister was out in Hartstown. I will give an example of why it is important that we look at the next stream of funding now. The work in Hartstown is only starting now. It has taken two or three years to get to the stage where work will actually start. In the context of new communities, Tyrrelstown in my constituency has a community centre but the population will probably grow by at least 40% or 50% …

Today, a call was made for sick patients to go to GPs and other pathways to try to avoid emergency departments. Unfortunately, in Tyrrelstown in my constituency, the GP clinic will close in February and, as we know, there is overwhelming evidence that people are dying in emergency departments. Let me give an example. The Tánaiste talked about primary care, early diagnosis and access to services. There is a crisis in the endoscopy unit at Connolly Hospital. There are currently just four scopes being performed daily.…

That is what I have been told.

In Connolly Hospital.