I acknowledge and thank the Senator for raising what is an extremely important issue. At the outset, the Minister wishes to acknowledge the importance of vehicles used for the transport of cancer patients and of blood bike groups that use vehicles to rapidly transport medical and clinical items to and from healthcare facilities. This voluntary service reduces demand on alternative transport methods and plays an important role in supporting the healthcare system. On 28 April this year, the Minister granted approval …

I am taking this matter for the Minister for Transport, but, fortunately for the Senator, I am a Minister of State in the Department of Finance and this is a matter for that Department. The Senator makes a very valid point about where we would be as a society if we were bereft of volunteerism right across the board, be it in sport or in healthcare provision such as this. One of the lines of the pre-prepared script that was given was on the costs associated with implementing this measure but what I would like to loo…

I thank all Deputies across the House for their contributions to the debate. I will not disagree with many of the arguments they made. While some progress has been made recently, it is absolutely fair to say that the current level of access to dental and orthodontic services is not where it needs to be. It needs to be improved. I know this from the various contributions that have been made tonight, having taken this debate on behalf of the Government, and from my engagement with constituents. It is important to rec…

I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Naughton, who sends her apologies that she cannot be here to today. I thank Deputy Scanlon for his strong advocacy on behalf of St. Patrick’s National School. The primary staffing schedule is a long-standing feature of the primary allocation system which ensures fairness and transparency in the allocation of mainstream class teachers across our primary schools, regardless of location. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources prov…

Teacher numbers at primary schools have reached the highest ever level in the current school year. Currently there are over 43,000 teaching posts allocated across the primary school system. This represents an increase of just over 5,000 teachers when compared to the 2019-2020 year. This has led to a steady improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio and to average class sizes reducing in this period. The Government has significantly invested in our schools and in our teacher workforce in recent years. Deputy Scanlon wil…

I welcome the opportunity to respond on this matter. I thank the Deputy for raising it. I pass on the apologies of the Minister for Defence that she cannot be here in the Chamber this evening. I acknowledge Deputy Wall's advocacy in this area. During his contribution the Deputy referred to the seriousness of this issue, which is demonstrated in the cross-party support for trying to get this addressed. I addressed this very issue with my colleague Senator O'Loughlin in the Seanad earlier today. Deputy Ó Fearghaíl ha…

I thank the Deputy again for his contribution. The Minister for Defence is the custodian and the guardian of the Curragh lands, pursuant to the provisions of the Curragh of Kildare Act 1961. Under that Act, the Curragh Plains are recognised as a working environment for the State's Defence Forces, as well as being a place of historical and cultural importance, as the Deputy alluded to. As I have already stated, the Minister remains fully committed to pursuing a modern and a sustainable regulatory model in managing t…

I thank the Deputies for raising this important matter and providing me an opportunity to update the House. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. The funding system for local authorities is a complex one, as authorities derive their income from a variety of sources, including commercial rates, charges for goods and services and local property tax, LPT, as well as funding from Government Departments and other bodies. Central governme…

I again thank the Deputies for raising this issue. As acknowledged by the Deputies across the Chamber, I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Browne. I will conclude by acknowledging the current financial environment in which all local authorities, including Galway County Council, are operating and the pressures facing them in respect of general inflation and higher costs. I get that from my own local authority as well. Recently, the Department has received representations from the Galway County Council…

I acknowledge the Deputy raised this on Second Stage and I replied to advise that any issues that were there initially have been identified and rebates are being processed as efficiently as possible. The temporary enhancement to the diesel rebate scheme has been agreed by Government in light of the severe price impacts that have arisen following the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East. It is acknowledged it is a short-term and targeted measure that helps to ease the burden on households and businesses acros…

I am happy to reply to Deputy Doherty but it is probably a futile and pointless exercise because he has come in with his mind made up. I will reply anyway because we know his contribution today was for Facebook later on. Amendment No. 1 proposes from 1 July until 14 October 2026 a further reduction in mineral oil tax rates and petrol and auto diesel and to reduce the mineral oil tax rates applicable to kerosene used other than as a propellant, as well as further deviations from the mineral oil tax rates applying to…

I will speak to Deputy O'Callaghan's amendment when we get to it but the one point I would agree with him on is that we should always look at introducing targeted measures to help those who need the greatest level of support the most. The Deputy made the fair point that there is a cohort of people who are above the eligibility thresholds to qualify for the working family payment but need additional supports. I agree with the Deputy on that and I certainly will fight hard to ensure they get those supports in the upc…

I spoke about some of the additional supports we have been able to implement as a result of the introduction of the carbon tax. I am not sure whether the Deputy was in the Chamber at the time or if he was taking a telephone call outside it. I made the point that carbon tax has a role to play in terms of changing behaviour and helping people who can change to do so. As a representative of a rural constituency, I accept there are not the same alternatives in rural Ireland as there are in large urban areas. It is to p…

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for raising this issue. To be fair to him, the amendment calls for a report to be published within "3 months of the implementation of the new Mineral Oil Tax rates ... on the impact of an energy credit of €400 for each household with an income up to €70,000 per annum." While I accept he is trying to generate a debate here today and that it will not put a cost on the Exchequer here and now, but I presume what he is trying to do is to ensure that this can feed into the budgetary process for…

Temporary measures are temporary measures; that is the nature of a temporary measure. What did happen in the previous budget was the largest increase in investment in the disability sector on record, with an almost 20% increase on the previous year. My colleague tells me it was €620 million. That is how much additional funding was put into disability services, daycare and respite. These are all areas that people with a disability have been looking for. There is a commitment this year, and the Minister, Deputy Calle…

One basic point people fail to acknowledge and recognise is that the huge increase in energy prices is not as a consequence of decisions taken by the Government but as a consequence of an issue happening in the Middle East. That is not of the Government’s making. I think we can all agree on that. This is what has been the biggest driver in the increase in the cost of energy since the crisis began. As a consequence of and in reply to that, the Government did take corrective actions, not once but twice. This was to t…

The Deputy has had the vote, so he can go back and claim he has taken that position. The House has had to vote on his amendment. It was comprehensively beaten, not just by the Government Members but by other Members in the Dáil who support the model that has been implemented because they can see the benefit of it in terms of the money being reinvested. I will just give the Deputy a flavour. In budget 2026, €1.114 billion was allocated for climate measures and to ensure the most vulnerable would be protected from th…

What I am quoting are the figures from 2025 and 2026. I have outlined how the €1.114 billion was allocated to each Department. I cannot break it down in granular form for the Deputy here today, but what I am outlining, at a high level, is how the money collected is going back to the various Departments. When carbon tax was introduced initially, my understanding was that the first €20 was not ring-fenced and that anything over and above that was for the measures I have outlined already. I will come back to the Deput…

To the Deputy's latter point, I am always open to good suggestions from the Opposition; I am just not sure it always come forward with them. I say that in jest.

In all seriousness, I acknowledge all Members of the Dáil in terms of their co-operation and their positive engagement on this legislation since it was first introduced by my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh, when she was a backbench TD. I fully appreciate the amendment is coming from a position of good faith and I am not at all questioning Deputy Nash's bona fides in relation to the reason for advancing it. The Government has considered the proposal to insert a new subsection that would provide a per…