I raise with the Tánaiste the issue of the public counter of the Probate Office having been closed since Covid. As he is aware, the death of a family member and the processing of probate can be a difficult experience for many families. It is not acceptable that a public counter is not available. Delays are being created because people have to put documents into a drop box and wait for the office to respond and emails to be sent. These things could be resolved much more quickly, as was often the case for a long time…

Hear, hear.

I will be sharing my time with Deputy Flaherty. We will take seven and four minutes, respectively. Deputy Flaherty can take over whenever I run out of issues for the Minister. I want to first deal with the Road Traffic Act, as it is now, having been passed and signed by the President over the summer. It contains many initiatives and measures to improve the safety of people on our roads and elsewhere. The Minister will know of my own advocacy in the area of the scrambler bike legislation. I introduced a Private Memb…

I am asking this question on behalf of Deputy Cahill. I think this is the first opportunity I have had to congratulate the Minister on the negotiations in regard to the budget. For the second year in a row, the combination of once-off payments and increases in core rates has led the ESRI to state that these changes have kept people ahead of inflation. Given international rates of inflation, as well as those here, this is an achievement. At the same time, it gives us the flexibility to row back on this when inflatio…

One CIB, eight CIS and 90 CICs have closed - all the acronyms would make one's head hurt. In essence one of the difficulties with the system is that the Minister cannot direct them because they are separate companies, but it was not any one of those companies that decided this, it was us. It was the Oireachtas that decided to have independent companies. The community and voluntary sector is plagued with a structure where we have set up a system that devolves responsibility, but that is a bigger point. Citizens info…

I join the Minister in encouraging people to come forward. From speaking to many volunteers I know it is a very rewarding service. As we in this House all know, to be able to impart information to people they otherwise would not be aware of is a very rewarding experience. It certainly is for me any time I am in my clinic. There is, however, more that can be done. This issue around volunteering is impacting voluntary services right across the country. GAA clubs and football clubs are all saying the same thing. In ma…

That is just because the Minister was present.

Both questions relate to the carer's allowance and means-testing. I am dealing with a huge number of reviews for the carer's allowance and they are being done in an incredibly intrusive way, with people being asked to submit bank statements. Instead of it being a qualification just on income grounds, they are being asked to produce bank statements, which are being returned with transactions highlighted where the Department is querying what they relate to. That is not the way to do it; it should be based on income c…

I think Questions Nos. 60 to 62, inclusive, relate to the same issue. The Minister has discussed it in detail in the context of the straw man and the Green Paper, so I am happy to allow colleagues to use the time.

I join with other Deputies in calling for the details for the large-scale sports capital grants to be made available and to allow projects to make applications. I have spoken to the Minister of State many times about Bohemians Football Club in Dalymount stadium, a stadium with a huge history but also great potential. The partnership between the FAI, Dublin City Council and Bohs has the opportunity to apply for such a scheme. It will have significant benefit in the community. It is not just about the club itself but…

As the chair, I should remain independent, but I will call on Deputy Ó Ríordáin to conclude.

I begin by responding to a really useful point made by Deputy Ó Ríordáin. I welcome the changes that have been made to promote gender equality and how sports capital funding might be aligned to that goal by using real tools within the process. Deputy Ó Ríordáin also referred to the idea of sports clubs coming together. We all know that any groups coming together will have different agendas and so on. There should be a premium payable within the sports capital system to clubs that come together. There also should be…

In his report to the Dublin county board, the outgoing secretary cited the lack of facilities in the city. This site is 15 minutes from the city and right in the heart of the local community. It would be fantastic for Ballymun Kickhams GAA Club to be located back in the community we represent instead of being out near the airport in Páirc Ciceam, even though that is a great facility. Lots of clubs in our area have received sports capital funding, including Home Farm FC, St. Kevin's Boys Club, CLG Na Fianna and Seta…

I thank the Deputy. I think that by the end of the debate, we will have named every sports club in Ireland.

I invite Deputy Gannon to continue the trend.

Every club deserves a mention. That is the least we can do in here.

I thank Deputy Farrell and I thank him for his assistance in temporarily taking the Chair while I needed to speak as well.

I acknowledge that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is unable to take this issue but I thank the Minister of State for being here to facilitate the matter being raised. Over several months I have raised, by way of parliamentary question, the issue of historical sexual abuse in the Probation Service. In May, in a written reply from the Minister, she confirmed that two allegations of child sexual abuse had been made in regard to the Probation Service. In the Minister's words, they related to a deceased member of the Pro…

I welcome the Minister of State's putting those points on the record. I join him in encouraging anybody who was the victim of sexual abuse, in a historical context or otherwise, in the Probation Service to come forward. A probation officer has a sense of huge trust. The reports which came to me involved not the person themselves being the subject of probation but actually a family member. The threat was used that if this sexual abuse were disclosed, that family member - I say "family member"; it was another child -…

I thank the Minister of State for being here. The last question dealt with stakeholder engagement and this topic touches on it too. I refer to the representative groups who represent taxi drivers. The Minister of State will have met many of them in his constituency, as have I, Deputy Troy and many others, in regard to many issues. One issue that has seemed to come to the fore, mostly because of the Government's decision, rightly, during Covid-19 to extend the lifetime of a taxi vehicle, is the anomaly whereby if a …