Yes.

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue. I thank my colleague Deputy Kenny for also raising it. There are a number of issues involved. We know the all-island rail review is due for publishing. I also understand an environmental assessment of the review must be done. I ask that the assessment be done as quickly as possible and that the consultations are completed within a couple of months. I understand there are some implications in terms of having Stormont up and running again. This is very impo…

I would also refer to the report done by Professor John Bradley and the work he did in proving this was a viable, shovel-ready project, and that the costings of it were much less than what was cited in the other reports. I cannot tell the Minister of State how important it is, as Deputy Kenny said, to keep the existing rail network from Claremorris to Collooney. Let us not make the mistake of using that for anything else. It has to be left in place. It can be proven quickly how intact it is and how valuable it will…

The Good Friday Agreement was a monumental achievement by all involved. It showed courageous leadership and has brought us to a really good place for the past 25 years. One of the shortcomings of the agreement was the failure to have a proper implementation structure. Now, 25 years on, many elements of the agreement are yet to be implemented. I refer in particular to the bill of rights and the all-island charter of rights. It is incumbent on the Tánaiste and the Government to ensure they play their part in the bill…

I will address a number of points raised by the Minister and the Minister of State. Several points were raised about equity. I understand these concerns and that is exactly why the scheme we are proposing is temporary and targeted. It provides relief on the increased interest costs that mortgage holders have faced as a result of rate hikes since June 2022 to ensure that those at the sharpest edge of the interest rate hikes are supported most. This is not blanket relief as existed before - the relief the Minister ch…

Last week, the eyes of the world were on Ballina in County Mayo when Joe Biden came to visit us. This week, a report in the Mayo News states a Ballina mother is begging for help as the prospect of having nowhere to live becomes more and more real with every passing day, as she talks about the lifting of the eviction ban. She said she has never begged for anything in her life but she is begging now and pleading for help and for something to stop her and her children having to live on the street. Speaking of her chil…

That is not true.

The failure to spend the money allocated for housing, the exclusion of most of County Mayo from the affordable housing scheme and the callous decision to remove the eviction ban are devastating families right here, right now. Men, women and children are being directly impacted. I am working with a woman from Westport. She has three daughters and is going to be evicted next Monday, 24 April. This woman cares for her elderly father and her husband has a degenerative brain disease and is confined to a nursing home in …

My first question relates to apprenticeships. I ask the Minister to bring us up to date on what is happening in relation to apprenticeships and the steps he is taking to increase their number and to address the backlogs in the system.

I thank the Minister for his response. In 2016 the Government set a target of 9,000 annual apprenticeship registrations by 2020 but here we are in 2023, and we still have not reached that target. The Government set a new target of 10,000 in 2020. The Minister has said that we are making progress towards that but we have not even reached the old target. Back in 2016 we did not even understand the desperate need for construction skills that we would have today. The Government has not substantially increased apprentic…

I really welcome that. If one takes the figure of 300, that is the number of apprenticeships the ESB alone does every year. The local authorities have been dragging their feet on this. We need to sit down with them, examine why that is the case and determine what are the blockages. We need to be able to facilitate the local authorities as well as giving them the responsibility for ensuring that more apprenticeships happen. The Government has not used public procurement contracts to incentivise large construction co…

We could talk about apprenticeships all day.

In this question I am asking the Minister to outline the strategy for addressing student accommodation ahead of the next academic year. What is he doing to ensure that students have accommodation and will be able to attend the college or university of their choice in September or October?

I welcome the shift in Government policy in regard to investment in student accommodation. That is what we as a party have wanted for a long time. Will the Minister confirm that at the end of 2019, there were 28,414 student accommodation units registered with the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB? However, at the end of 2021 that number was down to 21,681. That was a decline of 7,000 beds. How many student accommodation units are registered with the RTB for 2022? Those figures have not been made publicly available y…

The most important question is whether there is less or more student accommodation in the system. Sometimes from the way it is presented we give the impression that there is more but really there is less. When we look at the increase in the number of students, we have to recognise the issue that exists because this August and September will be the Minister's third year in the role. I do not want a situation where we do not have enough student accommodation. The other issue I want the Minister to look at is the legi…

I am glad the focus is on PhD researchers at the moment and that there has been a realisation they are critical not only to our productivity, but to our social and economic growth now and into the future. There were reports last night that Jeffrey Sardina, a member of the national committee of the Postgraduate Workers Organisation, PWO, received documents from Revenue that indicated PhD researchers in receipt of the stipend may be required to pay taxes. Is the Minister aware of any evaluation by Revenue that sugges…

I very much welcome this OECD report and look forward to examining it. It is crucial to our economic growth going forward. The national skills input into that will determine how we shape and create the human workforce as we go forward. We also need to be cognisant of the need to join things up. If we are encouraging lifelong education and upskilling of the workforce, we need to look at how we fund part-time education. We also need to look at the interaction between AI and the service industries and how we can creat…

I thank the Minister for that update. We eagerly await the HEA recommendations on this matter. I am a bit concerned that we might start reinventing the wheel. The facts are there. Some 500 Irish students are outside the country studying veterinary medicine at the moment. It is important not to go backwards but to go forwards. We need this issue to be addressed as soon as possible. We need a new veterinary school. The situation cannot be tweaked. We also need an all-island approach. We need an institution that has t…

We also need uniform accreditation across the island. That is important.

The Minister has partially discussed this issue. My question is related to the link-up between the demands in the health services and higher education, higher educational professionals and the training that is necessary. As a former Minister for Health, the Minister will understand the enormous gaps that exist. Money is being wasted in places such as Achill Island, where, as the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, can verify, we have paid nearly €1 million on locum GPs because we do not have the GPs in place to ser…