I really enjoyed my trip to the Waterford Childcare Centre and the beautiful poster I received from the children and staff there with the handprints on it has pride of place in my office. We will have the opportunity in the general election to really tease out the issue of the degree of State involvement in the provision of childcare because I recognise parental choice is really important here. Some parents, other than the two years ECCE scheme, do not want or have any further need of early learning and care. Other…

I thank the Deputy. There have been significant developments in the entitlements to family leaves and working family payments in recent years. The Government committed in the programme for Government to supporting parents, including by extending paid leave for parents to allow them to spend more time with their baby during the first year. Under the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019, working parents are entitled to nine weeks of paid parent's leave for each relevant parent, to be taken in the first two years after…

This type of leave has always been seen as leave pertaining to the parent rather than to the child, as the Deputy described it. That is not to say additional types of leave could not be introduced looking specifically at the needs of one-parent families. This leave is designed to recognise a situation where there is a one-parent family as the result of maybe a relationship breakdown, and it is to ensure the parent who is not cohabiting or maybe does not have custody of the child is still entitled to use leave to be…

It would probably be addressed through something bespoke for that group of parents rather than through a change to parent's leave. The process for parent's leave is a good one and works well. I would like to see it grow. As we know, the rate of parent's leave has grown by €15. I hope to see the take-up increase in the years to come. I believe that one of the reasons take-up is low, particularly among dads, is that the rate is seen as too low. The €15 increase is quite significant. It would probably be best to look …

I begin by recognising the huge work done by the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Chambers, and their teams over the last months in delivering budget 2025, the fifth and final budget of this Government. The delivery of this final budget gives us a moment to reflect. When the Green Party contested the election in 2020, we did so proposing a manifesto entitled Towards 2030: A decade of change. We went to the electorate with a commitment to act because of an unavoidable truth, namely, that we had just a decade to make …

I thank the Deputy for his question. Just before I respond specifically on the ARP, it is worth reminding ourselves of the context in which this payment was introduced. It was at a time of the greatest humanitarian crisis we have seen on our Continent since the Second World War, and the greatest movement of people across the Continent. It was the biggest humanitarian challenge we in Ireland have faced in our nation's history. We have provided refuge for more than 100,000 Ukrainians over the course of the past two y…

I thank the Deputy. It is important to state that this payment is allowing us to meet the accommodation needs of Ukrainians who are here as a legal right under the temporary protection directive. It is an extremely important part of the State's accommodation offering. Thousands of Ukrainians have a legal right to be in this country under the temporary protection directive. We meet their accommodation needs through the recognition payment and pledged accommodation. If we are to speak about removing that payment, we …

The Deputy said what he does not want-----

-----but has not indicated what he does want.

Whoever is the Minister has to find the accommodation. He or she cannot draw those kind of lines in terms of what will not happen. The Minister has to show where accommodation will be provided.

I thank the Deputy for the question. For clarity, I spoke to media at some length about this on Monday, but I am very happy to restate what I said at that point. We have to be absolutely factual when we are dealing with these issues and are in a situation where we have a homelessness crisis, where many people are in really difficult situations, where we have a humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine and where we have seen increased level of international protection applicants. The fact is that international pro…

No one is evicted from international protection accommodation. I want to make that clear. In a situation where people have status, they are entitled to the full range of supports we spoke about earlier that people in the international protection application process are not entitled to. When people get their status, they are entitled to the same set of rights and supports as every Irish citizen. We have put in place significant resources to help those who have status to move on because it is not good for anyone that…

I thank the Deputy for his question. He is right that I know where Killarney is. I had a very enjoyable experience of visiting it with my family for a weekend in July. On the journey there, like pretty much everyone, we spent 30 minutes caught in the notorious traffic jam in Adare. As we were caught there, I noticed the work on the Adare bypass-----

-----which is a roads project approved and funded by the Government.

The Deputy would probably agree that the project will probably be of benefit to many of his constituents when it has been completed. I make that point because the Government is building new road infrastructure and upgrading existing roads. No doubt the Deputy was at the opening of the Listowel bypass last month, another major piece of new infrastructure in the Deputy's constituency. The Government has earmarked €5.1 billion for capital spending on new national roads projects from 2021 to 2030 under the national dev…

I thank the Deputy for his long-standing invitation. With respect, it does sound like he is complaining about the allocation of money to cyclists. We do not need to be setting one off against the other. We did not invest in cycling infrastructure in this country for a long time. Plenty of the cyclists who are now benefitting from schemes, some of them urban and others rural, are cycling to work. Some of them are tourists who are creating employment for many of the Deputy's constituents. Many of the people who are a…

I thank the Deputy for raising a very important matter. It is one that has public health dimensions to it, environmental dimensions and also development and housing dimensions. I will not pretend for a moment that I am in any way an expert on the intricacies of the wastewater infrastructure deficits and challenges the Deputy and her constituents face in Galway. If she does not mind, I will speak at a slightly higher level. I am happy to raise the issue with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. I always see the cha…

I absolutely hear the Deputy's valid concerns about the risks here, particularly in respect of those two pipes, the structural integrity of one and the risks there, as identified by the EPA. I am happy to bring those concerns forward. I think the investment Irish Water has undertaken nationally and the investment it will be able to undertake with additional capital funding will allow the immediate environmental and public health risks the Deputy has highlighted to be addressed. The investment will also allow for th…

I thank the Deputy for bringing our attention to the incredibly tragic events that happened in Creeslough. I remember the way in which the country rallied around at the time. Even earlier this year, one of the local GAA clubs came down to my local GAA club in Castleknock and there was a wonderful day of support. It is entirely reasonable that families are asking questions about how the events of that day and what preceded them took place. As the Deputy said, there is an active Garda investigation under way. It is i…

On the matter of housing and meeting our international obligations, I am very clear that I do not agree with the comments Deputy Doherty put forward. As a Minister who has the job to provide accommodation for people and is providing accommodation through that payment, I am not clear what his solution is in respect of the thousands of people who rely on that payment right now if it is withdrawn. As regards the hate crime legislation, I have always sought, as part of the Government, to ensure that hate crimes are tre…