I thank the Minister of State for his response. Our credit unions are among our most trusted financial institutions and are uniquely placed to support the delivery of housing and many retrofitting schemes. The Irish League of Credit Unions, representing approximately 226 credit unions with an estimated €18 billion in assets, looks set to follow in the footsteps of the Credit Union Development Association by linking with investment partners, as the Minister of State mentions, to form a special purpose vehicle to inv…

I thank the Minister of State. I have looked at previous parliamentary questions on this matter. It was noted, as was said, that the three credit union bodies have indicated that they are interested in pursuing this. Is there any other institution or group of credit unions on the horizon that we were unaware of up to now? Perhaps the Minister of State will expand on that, if it is the case. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage ultimately has responsibility for formulating policy and proposing ap…

I am sharing time with Deputy O'Donnell. I echo the sentiments of Deputy O'Connor that there is nobody better placed than the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to take up the challenge in regard to mental health. She has a great track record on these issues and I hope, in the years to come, she can put her stamp on the Department. As she said in her opening statement, we are not yet fully aware of the true extent of the impacts of the Covid crisis on our mental health as a society. Different people have been affect…

I apologise to the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, he has had a busy evening. I am here to echo previous calls from many quarters, including Children’s Books Ireland, for the reinstatement of the school library grant. This was a grant of €2.2 million which was cut over a decade ago. This is an important issue. Cultivating the skill of reading in our young people we must all encourage. We speak repeatedly about literacy levels amongst disadvantaged students and minorities and in the modern world we speak about digi…

I thank the Minister of State for the response and doing the work for me in that he contacted the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, as well. I appreciate his proactive work. Our public libraries are great facilities for all our kids and they play a role in making books available to all our students across cities and counties. I am speaking about libraries in schools specifically because, as I said, if kids are surrounded by books they are more likely to take up a book themselves. It is common sense but it is a fact. We r…

Following on from Deputy Bruton's contribution, today is a positive day. The context of this plan is that 37% of the expenditure must relate to climate initiatives and 20% must relate to digital investments and reforms. It is great, therefore, that my county, Cork, and Cork North-Central in particular, has been promised €185 million as part of the proposal for a massive job in Kent Station, replicating what has been done in the past on the eastern or Cork-Cobh line. There is also the northern line heading from Cork…

I will be very brief as I only have two questions. The temporary assistance payment scheme, TAPS, is supporting the nursing home sector. With the onset of Covid-19, TAPS has proven to be integral in supporting our nursing homes and providing effective infection prevention, which has enhanced the safety of nursing home residents. TAPS is due to expire on 30 June and nursing homes are waiting to hear if this support will be continued. Will the Minister please clarify the status of the payment or when he is likely to …

I thank the Minister of State for being here. I do not raise this topic in the House with any appetite. I must commend the work many people who work in the Department of Social Protection have done throughout the pandemic, particularly with the pandemic unemployment payment. It has been great to see the massive turnaround time in terms of people getting their entitlements. At the outset, I must put that on the record. There are, however, a number of cases I have come across in recent months in respect of which ther…

There is quite a bit of information there, so I look forward to going through it afterwards. I welcome the fact that since 2019, appeal times have decreased from, I think the Minister of State said, roughly 20 weeks down to 16 weeks. That said that, I would appreciate if he could, by way of further communication, write to me with the details of the number of community welfare officers we have per county across the country, and juxtapose that with previous years to see what the staffing arrangement is. I welcome tha…

I was hoping my fellow Corkonian the Taoiseach might be present to answer my question. Given his remit in the area of transport, I am glad the Minister is here. A report was published yesterday from the All-Island Research Observatory in Maynooth demonstrating that Cork's road infrastructure is massively underfunded. It is not just a question of underfunding of roads, as it also involves the town and village renewal scheme and the CLÁR and LEADER programmes, funding for which is substantially below national average…

I will be brief because I know that we are under time constraints. I would like to ask the Minister about the local improvement schemes and the community involvement schemes, in particular, in areas that were formerly within the boundary limits of Cork County Council, and which now, on account of the boundary change, find themselves within the boundary limits of Cork City Council. As a result of the change, they are no longer eligible for funding. I ask the Minister to comment on the matter.

I received the same response to parliamentary questions that I submitted previously on the issue. The difficulty is that it is very unlikely that Cork County Council will share its own limited budget with Cork City Council. That is the realpolitik of local authorities. To make the case again, these communities were located within the county council boundary and now find themselves within the boundary of the city council, despite the boundary extending in nonsensical ways, for example, 20 km into rural hinterland. T…

I am not going to dispute that the allocation has been increased this year for Cork. The Minister is right to state that Cork has the longest road network in the country. Indeed, the northern division of Cork has a population equivalent to places like County Kilkenny. West Cork, for example, has the largest road infrastructure network in the country. It is for that very reason that per head of population, Cork does receive less funding from any of these projects, whether it is in terms of roads, as I am speaking ab…

I wish to ask the Minister for an update in relation to the rapid antigen testing roll-out across our universities. I understand that the Minister has been speaking about the issue for a number of months, as have I and a number of other Deputies. I am eager to see progress on the matter. I ask the Minister to provide us with details on the roll-out, looking ahead to September 2021.

It is great to see that progress is being made. Hopefully, that will ensure that there is an on-site return of students in September. That is welcome. I welcome the fact that rapid antigen testing will just be part of that. I take what the Minister has said and I know that he has been a proponent of antigen testing for a long time. It is not a criticism of him specifically, but I believe that as a Government, we can do much more. The dogs on the street know the pros and cons of rapid antigen testing. It is not as a…

I thank the Minister for taking time to take this Topical Issue matter again. We are all familiar at this stage with St. Gabriel's Special School in Cork, which caters for children with profound intellectual disabilities and with a dual diagnosis, including autism. Its staff do great work and this needs to be recognised. The picture of St. Gabriel's Special School I am about to paint is not a pretty one. We have heard this before because we have been talking about this since 2018. I first became familiar with the s…

I commend the Minister on the work she has done up to now in respect of the delivery of special education provision in Cork, particularly in recent months. I welcome the new special school that will be based in Carrigaline. That will make a massive difference in Cork, where there are acute problems. However, I will return to St. Gabriel's and the specifics of that case. The majority of special needs schools in Cork, particularly schools that cater for dual diagnosis, are full. Therefore, the problem in St. Gabriel'…

I welcome the Minister of State. I wish him well in his time ahead and, in particular, with this climate action Bill. Most of the Members are fully aware of the challenges that lie ahead in this regard, but also the necessity of this Bill in ensuring Ireland becomes a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. The importance of this Bill cannot be overstated. It is a clear signal of intent by the Government as to where it aims to stimulate employment, focus investment and how we reach our climate targets as agreed under the P…

We are in the middle of a global health crisis. We are living in extraordinary times which call for extraordinary measures. I note that last night President Biden released a statement announcing his Administration's support for the waiving of intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines. It is quite obvious that not vaccinating the globe in its entirety as expeditiously as possible increases the likelihood of the development of further variants that are resistant to existing vaccines, ultimately prolonging th…

I thank the Minister, health professionals and front-line staff for the progress made over recent months in the vaccination roll-out. It is heartening to see us rolling through the different age cohorts, with people getting those much-needed jabs. That needs to be acknowledged. I thank the Minister, his Department and all those on the front line. On the 24-hour vaccination centres, will the Minister expand on their anticipated roll-out, where they might be and how quickly we might see them? What is the Minister's p…