Most people do not need the home service. Maybe if it was made available, too many people would access it. Is it possible to get a PSC through the portal or does a person have to present to the Intreo office or somebody call to his or her home?

The office in Sligo said that it did not need the public services card but the post office said it did and would not give the payment to the woman's husband without her having a PSC. The Intreo office did give him a temporary card and, eventually, when he was able to get access to staff, someone visited her home afterwards, but it caused a lot of trouble. She also got a letter to say she was allocated a free travel pass and needed to present at the Intreo office to access that. Everyone's disability is different. I…

What supports has the Minister for Social Protection put in place to deal with the consistent delays in processing applications for additional needs payments and what actions has she taken to ensure persons who require the payment to pay for a deposit or first month's rent are not missing out on possible house rentals?

Additional needs payment applications for assistance with deposits and rents are now being dealt with in the centralised office in Dublin. I am hearing the applications are taking weeks, if not months, to be processed. I have been contacted by a tenancy sustainment and support officer who works with people who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless. They are referred by the local authority to this person, who helps them get viewings of properties. Most are on social welfare and do not have the means to save…

The fact is that two weeks is too long. Two weeks for some payments might be sufficient but for this case, where it is for a deposit or rent, an immediate payment is needed. Otherwise, the tenancy will be gone because there is such a demand. I do not know why the system was changed because there is an old saying that goes, if it is not broken, do not fix it. Before this, somebody in the local authority who knew the person locally would have worked in the community welfare office and a good relationship would have b…

Will the Minister provide an update on the proposed modular units for Ukrainian families fleeing the war in their country, including the timeframe for the completion and allocation of those units in County Cavan? Will he provide details of the additional resources and supports being put in place in Cavan in advance of, and in conjunction with, the allocation of those units?

I thank the Minister. A briefing that we received from the Minister and his Department indicated that the rapid-build homes would be in place by the end of last year. Initially the number for Cavan was 60. This was reduced to 28, but that is still 28 additional families. I am concerned that as many hotels that are housing refugees at the moment may not continue to do so past the end of March, there will be more demand for accommodation. Given the level of demand in the housing market, what plans are being put in pl…

Does the Minister consider that there is good cross-departmental co-operation on this issue? We need the Department of Education to assist and we need the Department of Health to ensure there are enough GPs to provide services. We have seen horrific protests outside accommodation centres, which should not be happening. If people want to protest, they should do so outside the gates of Leinster House and not outside the doors of places where vulnerable people are living. There are people out there with genuine concer…

Milltown National School, in Milltown, Belturbet, County Cavan, has had sanction for an extension to be built. It was sanctioned last year. Changes were made to the original plan. Extra rooms, including an autism classroom, were added, which is very welcome. The works are ready to proceed but are being held up by the Department of Education, which needs to produce an updated schedule. The Department is aware of this. It said that it was marked as urgent in December of last year, but there has been no movement since…

The practice of successive governments from the 1970s to the 1990s was to deny disability payments to those in institutional care. Many of these people would have had profound disabilities and were relying on the State to care for them and advocate on their behalf. Instead of advocating for them the strategy of the Governments during this period, and by subsequent Governments, was to suppress advice coming to Cabinet that if those disabled people sued the State for payments their cases were likely to succeed. This …

We need full disclosure and openness from the Government and those who were in positions of power in regard to the Government’s heartless political strategy to withhold and deny disability payments to those in residential care who were entitled to it. This must involve the full co-operation of and transparency on the part of the Government, including the acceptance of any requests from committees for Ministers to address the matter. The practice of successive Governments from the 1970s to the 1990s was to deny disa…

The Taoiseach stated that while the Government has a responsibility to do what is right, it also has a responsibility to protect the taxpayer. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, when speaking on "Morning Ireland" stated that the need to protect State resources had obscured the need to protect the vulnerable. He is reported as saying, "When the State is subject to legal actions, when it adopts legal positions, I think it's really important that those positions ar…

I would like to come in on this question. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Autism. Fiacre Ryan and his mother, Carmel, presented as witnesses at the committee and talked about and explained this method. I have been contacted by a number of parents and teachers about this method. The Minister of State said that schools are not prohibited from using the method. However, one school was using it and when the inspector visited the school they told it to stop, so schools are being prohibited from using this method…

What is the timeframe for the completion of a full review of the school transport scheme, and the publication of that review and its recommendations?

I thank the Minister. I presume changes to the scheme will be in place for September 2023. I will raise a situation that arises in the townland in which I live, where a cluster of students are attending their second-nearest school in Cavan town. There are four secondary schools in that town. Historically, students in the area where I live have gone to Cavan town rather than the nearest school in Ballyjamesduff. They are only seen as concessionary students but if they avail of a concessionary ticket, they have to tr…

My son is one of the students who is availing of a private transport arrangement that is costing €40 per student per week. That adds up to €1,300 per year, not including exam periods if students are in third or sixth year. Quite a number of students this year who would traditionally have been concessionary ticket holders lost out on their bus places. This was because the transport offered was free and those who were eligible but never previously used the transport applied for tickets and were given them ahead of th…

No problem. I welcome the report of the committee and its recommendations in respect of the summer programme for 2023. I commend the Chair of the committee, as well as my fellow members. We met many groups and parents who have lived experience of the programme. They told us of the devastation they experienced when their child did not get access to summer provision. The July provision scheme was established following a High Court ruling in 1993 which set down that children with additional educational need have a rig…

I was contacted by a constituent who had applied for planning permission to build 25 houses in Cavan town. He made the application last January and it was approved by the council in July, but it was appealed by a third party to An Bord Pleanála. The board was due to make a decision on Monday, 12 December, but the man was told that day that the decision would be delayed by three months. I have been told by a planner in Cavan County Council that some decisions take up to a year because of a lack of staff. If the Gove…

I broadly welcome the Bill, although there is a small number of issues that need to be addressed. I commend the Minister on bringing this forward. In terms of organ donation and transplantation, Ireland, according to the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, GODT, currently ranks 28th in organ donation rates out of 72 countries worldwide. Rates of organ donation are 18 per million population in Ireland compared with 25 per million population in Britain. I welcome this Bill will introduce an opt-out mo…

I welcome the motion and commend my party and constituency colleague, Deputy Carthy, on his work on this issue and on bringing this motion to the Dáil. The motion aims to put a halt to Coillte's proposed joint venture with Gresham House. I am dismayed by the Minister's answer that the deal has been done. This deal will see millions of euro in public funds used to subsidise the purchase of huge swathes of Irish land by a British investment company. The deal was not transparent and it has rightly been criticised by a…