I fully support the vacant property grant as does my party but we would change it. We would not scrap it as the Minister continually says. We would change it and make it better. The first home scheme drives up the price of housing. We know that. Perhaps my figures are incorrect but I believe that the tenant in situ scheme has only involved three properties in Cavan and five in Monaghan. People have come to me who are renting a house. The house goes on sale, they are in negotiations hoping the council will buy the h…

What actions are being taken to ensure, insofar as possible, the safety and security of members of the Defence Forces taking part in UNIFIL peacekeeping duties?

I too pay tribute to all members of the Defence Forces serving in Lebanon and their families at this extremely worrying time. It is important that all of the different European states affected come together and call out the actions but further action is needed because Israel is ignoring any words calling out what it has been doing. There were incidents in the 1980s where troops were actually kidnapped. We do not want to see any of our troops coming to harm. I am particularly worried about the troops in the outposts…

I know leave has been suspended from now on but I want to know if those on leave will get to return.

Therefore, the unit could be under pressure and under-resourced, which would be a concern. I know supplies are going to Camp Shamrock but are they getting to the people in the outposts? That is the concern. We saw the footage of Israeli tanks surrounding the outposts, which was very scary. It is a question of ensuring they are safe and looked after. I presume that, as the Tánaiste said, there is constant monitoring of what is happening and plans in place to take action, if need be, to move them out of there. We jus…

I have a question on this issue, as Question No. 78 is on this specific route as well. These issues have been going on for years. A parliamentary question response from the NTA over a year ago stated that a revised timetable for routes 109 and 109x with capacity improvements was scheduled to go live on 24 September 2023 and that it continues to monitor passage usage levels, and yet the Minister is saying now something else has to go live in another few weeks' time. Obviously, whatever they did was not sufficient at…

What actions has the Minister taken to address the efficiency and reliability issues with the 30 and X30 bus service, which runs between Cavan and Dublin Airport? The service begins in Donegal, goes through Fermanagh and Cavan and then on to the airport.

This is a huge issue. One couple, who divide their time between Britain and Ireland, contacted me. They have been using the bus service to the airport approximately once a month over the last three years and not once has the bus come on time. It is consistently late, anything from 30 minutes to an hour. We are not talking about five or ten minutes, nobody would mind that. We know that buses can get held up. The last time they went to get the bus it was 50 minutes late and then the driver said he needed to take 30 m…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the Disability Capacity Review to 2032 - A Review of Social Care Demand and Capacity Requirements to 2032, which was published in July 2021, to establish the level of additional funding that would be required to address unmet need and demographic change in disability services found that additional funding of between €750 million and €1,350 million would be required by 2032, for disability services to address demographic change and the considerable levels of unmet need; — the…

I welcome everybody in the Public Gallery and the disability activists who have joined us this evening for the two-hour debate. I also thank all colleagues who spoke in favour of this motion. I feel a little bit insulted by Deputy Sean Sherlock's suggestion that some of my colleagues who made short speeches did so only for social media. I would like him to know that every one of them would have liked to have spoken for much longer on this issue if the time had been available. When we have over 30 Deputies in the pa…

The Government must reconsider its decision to allocate €9 million in public funds to mobile phone pouches in schools. All schools I know, and all schools throughout the country, have very good mobile phone policies that have been bought into by students and teachers. Students understand that if they are caught with their phone on them in school, it will be confiscated. They adhere to the rules. There was no consultation with schools, unions or any of the stakeholders on how €9 million should be spent. I have been …

I have been contacted by tutors and by students who want to undertake these courses, and the tutors were given very little notice. They were contacted within days of when they assumed they were going to start delivering their classes. One tutor who delivers up to six art classes a week suddenly has no classes. She depends on that funding; it is her job. Students who have been in contact have said they may take on classes as a pastime but for many, it is progression to a different trade or job. Many others are learn…

The members of the board were not aware this was happening. I know there was a changeover of membership because of the local elections, but the members both before and after the elections were not aware. They had put forward proposals to get an overdraft and so on but were just shot down. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, intimated to me that some of the funding related to the large number of people who have come here from other countries and are receiving English classes, so there will be an additional cost for peop…

Answer the question.

A headline figure of €336 million in the budget sounds fantastic but I, along with disability organisations and disabled people find that the lack of clarity around this figure is really frustrating. We do not know if this is for an existing level of service, for capital spend or for current spend, for this year or for that year. I would really appreciate some more clarity on this. The Minister of State mentioned a figure of €40.3 million for day services, adult multidisciplinary services and neuro-rehabilitation s…

Do we have a figure for the section 39 pay parity?

Is that going to be addressed this year or next year? Are we going to see section 39 workers on precisely the same pay as the section 38 workers and the ones who work for the HSE and do precisely the same work as them? The figure of €30.8 million for respite services includes this year and next year. I question what is actually new in this budget for new measures that are going to be taken to increase services for disabled people. We had a disability capacity review which was very detailed. It said there was a huge…

I want to raise the issue of the cardiology service in Cavan and Monaghan Hospital. GPs in both counties have been written to and told not to refer cardiology patients to the hospital because there is no consultant. The consultant has left to take up another position. They say recruitment is ongoing but that could take months. There is no pathway for referral being outlined to them otherwise. Obviously, emergency cases can still go to the ED but for patients who have already had a heart attack or maybe have angina,…

In Cavan-Monaghan.

I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward the motion and affording us the opportunity to again discuss the important work of family carers, and the need to review and reform supports for them. Family carers have long been held up as the crucial pillar of care and support in Ireland. We have various strategies and documents referring to the important role that family carers play in our society. They are viewed as the backbone of care provision in Ireland. Parents caring for a loved one with complex needs often…