I thank the Taoiseach and I will pass on the information provided. As has been said, we need a bespoke solution in the short term for communal or district heating systems, particularly those that are powered by gas, which will not work in the long term. The solution is to change to biomass or geothermal energy and that has to be facilitated. A company in County Louth contacted me pointing out that ESB Networks had passed on an increase to all electricity providers. For this company, which is already facing huge inc…

I asked a question about ESB Networks.

The British Government, as we have all seen lately, is dealing with the outworkings of Brexit and other issues and has difficulties. The mood music has improved but it must be made clear that the protocol is the only show in town. While all streamlining is welcome, we need to make sure the British Government passes that message onto political unionism. The only other show in town is making sure the institutions and the Executive are up and running and actually delivering for people.

We recognise that this is a technical Bill and no one will oppose it. We accept the point that Fáilte Ireland has a job to do in selling this State and the entire island, which is what we want it to do. No different from anyone else, I will extol the virtues of the part of the world where I live. We will start with the wonders of the Boyne Valley and go right through to historic Drogheda, including the horrors of Cromwell. County Louth is the land of Cú Chulainn - Baile Átha Fhirdia to Knockbridge, where I am from,…

Technological university status is the only show in town and in this context, I raise the issue of Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, where Dr. Bob McKiernan is in place as interim president. We realise there will be change regarding this post. It must be ensured that DkIT is facilitated to make this necessary journey to TU status. I discussed this with the Minister, particularly when he was at the institute to open the Louth and Meath Education and Training Board, LMETB, centre of excellence in Drogheda for ap…

I want to ask the Minister if additional resources are being given to Intreo centres, in particular community welfare offices, in order to deal with the significant additional requests we are all aware of for supplementary welfare allowance and additional needs and exceptional needs payments, and if she can make a statement on the matter. There is a growing backlog that is holding back people on the housing list who want to move to new accommodation but cannot get payments.

I welcome the fact that we are now looking at the recruitment of 80 staff. I do not think anybody who has been in a constituency office of any party over the past while will not consider that as an absolute necessity. What is the timeline? I am not taking away from the considerable work that has been done by community welfare officers and those working in administration in the back office but, the fact is that there is a considerable backlog. In fairness, some of that is down to our being in a cost-of-living crisis…

I ask for an update on the timeline for employing those 80 people. What target times are we looking at for processing the claims? We all get that considerable work is being done and that is the reason more staff are being sought but Louth County Council informed us that it takes approximately six weeks for applications for white goods and floors. That can hold up people on the housing list in moving on and create a difficulty when looking for those. The properties that are being vacated should become available, bec…

I think we all welcome the work CE scheme participants carry out. It can be everything from drug addiction services right through to many pieces of work in the community. We need to review CE with a view to strengthening it. I welcome what has been said previously. We need to look at the pension age question Deputy Stanton has raised. Beyond that, for us to make this entirely sustainable we need to deal with the issue of CE supervisors' pay and conditions. We all know that is an ongoing issue and we need a whole-of…

This is the point. In fairness, I welcome what the Minister said. It is accepted that there has been a failure to deal with the issues being faced by foster parents. Deputy Gould and many other Deputies have, over many years, spoken about the Trojan work done by foster parents with kids who are sometimes coming from incredibly difficult situations. I welcome this once-off payment. We do need to look at the basic rates of payment, the problem in regard to waiting for six months on child benefit payments, foster pare…

We need a commitment in relation to the entire suite of issues that are being dealt with, but that also includes foster care payments. We are talking about a cost-of-living allowance. We all will be aware of the particular impositions on families that foster in the sense that they cannot necessarily avail of regular work situations. They are on the hook, for want of a better term, of maintaining that family connection for the child. They also have those access visits. They can involve considerable lengths of time a…

If we required a lesson during Covid on that idea of work-life balance and how it can be facilitated, we saw a situation where, at times, with all the difficulties that there were, we were able to facilitate both employees and employers in regard to remote working. In regard to this specific legislation, a considerable amount of work needs to be done. If we are talking about dealing with the issue of domestic violence, we would prefer ten days rather than five. Sinn Féin had a previous Bill which contained the idea…

All those present welcome this legislation. My colleague put it well when he referred to the need for zero tolerance when it comes to domestic violence, gender-based violence and violence against women. There can be no place for that in society. As previous speakers indicated, there is no room for a blind eye to be turned on this matter. It is vital that stalking be named as a charge. In fairness, we have dealt with a considerable number of issues that have been in the public domain and through the courts system in…

The Minister of State and I have spoken many times about issues with visas and permits, relating to everyone from farm workers to chefs. We have also spoken about the workforce advisory group, which is meant to be working to ensure there are enough home carers in the context of permits and visas. There is an acceptance that there is a shortfall of positions across the board and, therefore, there is a need to update this legislation. Even so, we cannot do that at the expense of employees' rights, and that is where w…

Carlinn Hall in Dundalk is one of these communal district heating systems with in or around 200 homes. The fact is that at the minute, the prices have risen. We are now talking approximately 42 cent per kWh. Frontline Energy provides heat. I have dealt with the Ministers and the Department. It looks like the long-term fix is the possibility of biomass or geothermal energy. We need to ensure we have the grant schemes that can deliver on that. While I would like to see a cap, I definitely think we have to facilitate …

What about Carlinn Hall?

The Acting Chairman could let him finish.

What we are talking about here are rights for citizens and be able to deliver a service. We are literally talking about a cradle-to-grave care. We all accept that this has been lacking. We could all reiterate some of the points made about psychology services, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and physiotherapy. We all know the waiting lists. Everyone has spoken about the 17,000 children waiting for initial contact with children's disability network teams. We all know this is not sustainable in the …

I concur with what has been said. We have a scramble every year. We hope that our numbers are sorted for concessionaries on the basis of luck and then every local elected representative gets involved in these campaigns in areas. I have told the Minister previously that sometimes they almost welcome it as a chance to show themselves as busy, but I would be a hell of a lot happier if we could just get this issue off the agenda. We need to examine what constitutes a concessionary ticket and the eligibility criteria an…

The Minister of State recently visited Coláiste Chú Chulainn in Dundalk and the two ASD classes there. Many parents have come to me and their issue is ensuring that their kid coming from primary school has a space in an ASD unit, if that is what is suitable, in secondary school. We have insufficient places or classes. At the Joint Committee on Autism a number of stakeholders recently stated that they believe one the solutions is that the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 would be altered from a point of vie…