Minister.

I apologise, it is a group question so only one speaker asks a question. The Deputy will get a chance to respond.

The Minister has four minutes.

The Deputies will both be coming in individually anyway.

I will take a supplementary question from Deputy McGuinness.

I congratulate Deputy McGuinness on his creativity.

We will now move to Question No. 11 from Deputy Ó Snodaigh.

Apologies; we will let Deputy Ó Snodaigh continue and Deputy Farrelly can go next.

Now that he has started he may as well keep going.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire.

Apologies, Deputy Farrelly. We will take Question No. 10 now.

I will allow a supplementary question from Deputy Conway-Walsh.

Since its introduction in 2027 the LIS has been hugely successful and it is massively oversubscribed. It is very important and there is a huge demand for it in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. Additional funding will be required. In the context of next year's budget I implore the Minister to fight as hard as he can for rural towns and villages in my constituency such as Clara, Ballyhale, Windgap, Glynn, Rathanna, Ballinkillin, Drummin, Ballymurphy, Conahy, Muckalee, Pilltown, Glenmore, Fiddown, Mooncoin, Carrige…

There is huge demand out there. It is a hugely successful scheme. If we could just get additional funding, it would be most welcome for those towns and villages in Carlow and Kilkenny.

Regarding proceedings which happened yesterday, I spoke with my four daughters last night about the carry-on, intimidation, bullying and abuse the Ceann Comhairle was subjected to yesterday, which was nothing short of disgraceful. Nobody should be bullied in the workplace. They asked me to say hello to you and wish you well as they are thinking of you. I want to discuss a couple of infrastructural projects. The Government has put of lot of money into such projects, but there are a couple of key ones in my constitue…

I congratulate all Ministers on their new elevations and I wish them well in their posts. My question today specifically relates to the Kilkenny-Carlow constituency and the number of gardaí currently assigned to stations in both of these counties.

The recent drive for new entrant Garda numbers was hugely successful and very welcome. My appeal to the Minister is that when these filter down through the system, that as many as possible are filtered to rural towns and villages. We have 18 Garda stations in Kilkenny and eight in Carlow, operating at varying levels. One station in my own town of Graiguenamanagh, which is a substation of the Thomastown office that also covers Goresbridge, a couple of years ago had two sergeants and ten gardaí. At present, we have o…

I welcome the news of 200 new entrants. We would be more than happy to accept those into Carlow and Kilkenny in one blow if the Minister wanted to use it as a pilot scheme. In all seriousness, I am encouraged by the recent recruitment campaign and that brings peace of mind, especially for our older and more vulnerable people in communities right across the constituency. They love seeing gardaí on the ground and that visibility on the beat. Whenever there is an event and gardaí are sourced, people feel safe. It is o…

I take this opportunity to congratulate the Taoiseach on his recent trip to America to represent Ireland. He did so with dignity and honour. While many people in this Chamber would have preferred that the Taoiseach had stayed at home and sat on his hands, he did not. He wore the green jersey with pride and I thank him for that. I wish to talk specifically about the school transport scheme. As we all know, it is open to applications now. A review was completed in February 2024 and some changes were recommended. One …

Last year, the Department of Finance published figures that highlighted that an annual output of 50,000 new homes would require funding of €20.4 billion a year, with the majority of this money coming from private development, including public funding. We know that record public funding has been put in for 2025. In order to get our housing market working, there are two key elements that international institutions look at before they commit finance to home construction finance. These are the return of their capital a…