As the Tánaiste outlined to the House, the consultative forum will be spread across four days and three different venues. University College Cork will host the forum on 22 June and University of Galway will host it on 23 June. I put on record the Government's thanks to both universities. As academic centres of excellence, they will provide the appropriate thoughtfulness on this reflective discussion on all the areas under their consideration. Following the sessions in Cork and Galway, Dublin Castle will host days o…

I thank the Senator for raising this very important issue. I know he has been a very strong advocate for maternity services right through the pandemic in consistently raising this issue. Limitations on partners accessing maternity services have been an issue of huge concern for women and their families, and I fully appreciate that such access limitations were very difficult for everyone during the Covid-19 pandemic. In that regard, it is important to emphasise that all access restrictions that were introduced for s…

Again, I acknowledge the great work Senator Ahearn had done on this area during the pandemic and since. As a father, I wholly understand the need for support partners to be present in maternity services and that the newborn's siblings get that unique, once in a lifetime opportunity, to see their newborn sibling in hospital. I will raise the Senator's concerns with the Minister for Health and ask him to come back to the Senator directly.

Again, I apologise for the Minister’s absence. I thank Senator Byrne for raising this very important issue. Improving access to home support is a priority for the Government. Since budget 2021, we have provided an additional €228 million in funding. In 2023, the overall home care budget is €723 million. The HSE national service plan sets a target to provide 23.9 million home support hours and the dementia-specific proportion of new hours will increase from 5% in 2021 to 15% in 2023, valued at €5.2 million. Delivery…

I acknowledge all the work Senator Maria Byrne does in this area. She is right. Local clinics show the huge demand for hours that is not being met. As the Minister pointed out in his response, the money is available. Care is a very challenging recruitment area and he has put in place the implementation process to try to deliver as many home care hours as possible in the community. As the Senator rightly noted, the benefit of keeping people in their own home living independently is huge for society generally.

I thank Senator Lombard for raising this very important issue for his community, which I am answering on behalf of the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Deputy O'Donovan, who has asked me to pass on his apologies as unfortunately, he is taking oral parliamentary questions in the Dáil Chamber this morning. Desmond Castle in Kinsale, also known as the French prison, is one of more than 700 national monuments throughout the country that are conserved, maintained and managed by the O…

I thank Senator Lombard for raising this very important issue and outlining the huge benefits of the site to the wider local economy and the tourism potential of the site. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, has asked me to inform Senator Lombard directly that he and his officials are wiling to meet him and will contact him at the earliest opportunity to progress this matter.

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this very important issue. I will provide an update on behalf of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Simon Harris, with regard to the current condition of research infrastructure and equipment in Irish universities. The Minister would wish to state at the outset that higher education institutions are autonomous bodies and are responsible for their own day-to-day management and operational affairs, including the management of acade…

I thank Senator Byrne again for raising this very important issue. The Senator is absolutely quite right that we need to ensure our higher education sector is equipped with the resources it needs to make the State competitive and to put Ireland at the forefront and at the cutting edge of innovation. Obviously, with regard to the €2.9 billion that I referred to, there is a huge amount of funding there in relation to research and innovation that needs to be spent. That is a critical component of the Department of Pub…

I thank Deputy Michael Moynihan for raising this important issue, which I am answering on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who unfortunately is unable to attend. The Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding for the national roads programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with TII, under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015, and in line with the national development plan, NDP, the planning, design, improvement and upgrading of individual nati…

Deputy Michael Moynihan clearly articulated in his response the importance of these improvement works and, indeed, the State's obligation to ensure the safety of our road network is up to specification to ensure we mitigate any collisions and have adequate safety processes in place. I will raise the Deputy's concerns with the Minister for Transport and ask that TII provide an update concerning its discussions with Cork County Council. I understand the priority and urgency attached to it because it is important in o…

I thank Deputy Ellis for giving me the opportunity to update the House on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, who is unfortunately unavailable. One of the objectives of the programme for Government is to deliver increased levels of integrated healthcare with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services to enable a home first approach. Primary care centres play an essential role in the delivery of that objective and significant progress has been made in the del…

I thank the Deputy for his response and his concern for his constituents and the wider Finglas area. As quite clearly stated in the reply, the design team has been engaged. It is now working on the design of the site. According to the reply, it will encompass huge change for the locality in terms of the dynamics of the site and what is included. The Minister said the ownership issue will be resolved quickly this year. As Deputy Ellis rightly pointed out, we are into the second quarter of the year and I hope it will…

I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for raising this issue. I apologise on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection. The Government is acutely aware of the effect that high energy prices and the cost of living are having on families, businesses and the most vulnerable. In recognition of these pressures, only last September, budget 2023 delivered the largest social protection budget in the history of the State. In addition to the substantial package of supports provided as part of the budget, earlier this year the Government …

I am happy to undertake to do that on behalf of Deputy Ó Cuív.

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this extremely important issue. The Minister for Health sends his apologies. I and the Government acknowledge that waiting times for many hospital procedures and appointments are unacceptably long and we are acutely aware of the great distress this causes patients and their families. Our waiting lists were far too long before the pandemic but have worsened as a direct result of Covid-19. The Government has adopted a twin track approach of investment and reform to de…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As has been acknowledged, many patients wait for an unacceptably long period. While significant work continues to positively impact waiting times and improve pathways to elective care, acute hospitals are still impacted by operational challenges arising from the pandemic. For the Saolta group, geography is a major challenge, as the population is dispersed and mostly rural, with approximately one sixth of the national population spread across one third of the land area of t…

I apologise for the absence of the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence. I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising the very important matter of the future management and protection of the Curragh plains. The Tánaiste would also like to reassure the House that the future management and protection of the unique biodiversity of the Curragh plains, coupled with its importance from a military perspective and its long-standing association with agricultural and horse-racing industries, is not lost on him. The importance of the …

I thank the Senator for her additional comments. I acknowledge the sentiment that the Curragh is a unique and special place in the hearts and minds of the people of Kildare and, indeed, those beyond who have the pleasure of visiting it and the many who make their living on foot of it. I welcome the Senator’s intention to introduce a Private Member’s Bill, as referenced in her contribution, around the issues of enforcement vis-à-vis the various encampments and fly-tipping, which sadly is a feature at the Curragh and…

I thank all the Deputies who contributed to the debate. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ireland's membership of the European Union, a momentous occasion that reminds us all of the importance of our shared values, solidarity and co-operation. The programme for Government underlined the Government’s commitment to being at the heart of the European home we helped build and to marking 50 years of Ireland's membership of the European Union. Since January 2022, beginning with the 50th anniversary of Ireland's his…