We all understand the logistics leading to the lateness in the leaving certificate results, but it is causing a huge amount of heartache. A family have contacted me as a young woman has been offered a course in the Netherlands that must be accepted on 26 August. She has also been offered a course in Coleraine that has to be accepted on 1 September. The first round of CAO offers will not happen until 8 September. We can all see the logistical difficulties in that. The Minister must communicate with international par…

Where do we start? Regulation, building product surveillance: it is fair to say they were not up to scratch, far from it. We have failed a number of people miserably. We are talking at the minute about Donegal, Mayo, Clare, Sligo, Limerick, Tipperary and up to seven more counties. I have heard a number of Teachtaí talk about my constituency of Louth. This is a small island and it is difficult to see how it will not be every county, on the basis that there are no customs posts, as a Deputy said earlier. These buildi…

We all know we are dealing with disastrously high rates in relation to rentals, particularly in towns such as Drogheda and Dundalk. It will hardly be a big shock that since news of the increase in the housing assistance payment, HAP, discretion level to 35% was first talked about that the local authority, namely, Louth County Council, has been inundated with calls. Can we get an actual date? We are being told it is next month, but is that the first of the month? If it is not, we need to get that information as soon…

I raise the case of a lady facing eviction and homelessness. She dealt with a dreadful circumstance of suffering terrible domestic violence. This created a situation where arrears arose in respect of her HAP tenancy. Payment of approximately €3,000 is being sought straight away. I raised this issue with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. I was told that it is with the HAP officials in the local authority. The local authority says it has no wriggle room…

The payment plan is the problem.

People cannot get the payment plan and that will put them into homelessness.

It is very difficult to talk about well-being if we are talking about situations where people are going to be evicted and forced into homelessness. I return to the issue I spoke about earlier, which is that people in housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancies, if they fall into arrears, are not given an opportunity to enter into a payment plan. People are being asked to pony up money, which can be up to €3,000. I have spoken about a number of instances where people were caught in a bad situation through absolutely …

We are dealing with rushed legislation on an issue we all, to a degree, saw coming down the tracks. Long before we entered into the disaster of the war in Ukraine, we had been speaking about whether we had difficulties with energy security. We knew that there was the possibility of blackouts and wondered whether they could be avoided. There was also the issue as to whether anyone could make a promise and whether anything that a Minister or Minister of State said was or was not a promise in ensuring that we could ke…

There has been a significant amount of to and fro today arising from the fact that a huge number of people are now in serious financial difficulty due to rising costs. I accept the Government cannot do everything but we need to see it doing more. We want to see an emergency budget, but I will not get into that now. We could talk about the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, report and the views of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, and the Central Bank. What promises will be made with a view to miti…

We all know the situation we are in. We are not taking away from what has been done by the Government to date but the fact is we are in a crisis and a disaster, to use terminology that is interchangeable now. We need to see action. It is no more than what any of us hear when we go around canvassing. No one is very interested in what has been done because they are more interested in what is going to be done. Given the circumstances people are in, we need action. What we want to see is what is proposed in many of the…

We all accept we are in a situation that is far from perfect. We know that interest rates, inflation rates and all the rates one would not want to rise are rising. Unfortunately, the consumer, householder and citizen can feel all of this on a day-by-day basis. We must be able to offer them something so they can get through it. We all accept that employment, particularly highly paid employment, is a means of breaking poverty. However, a considerable number of people are falling into fuel poverty and becoming the wor…

This is not the first time we have spoken about public liability insurance. We all know it is a disaster. Many companies and organisations cannot get public liability insurance at all or if they are offered such insurance, the premium is terrible. What engagement has the Minister of State had with the industry on this? We all know that we need certain things to happen, some of which are in the gift of the Minister for Justice in the context of duty of care. We need to see action and we need to see prices coming dow…

I appreciate some of the work that is being done. In fairness, this issue was thrown to the Minister of State when the area was already a disaster. We are dealing with issues now that should have been dealt with years ago. I am delighted to hear that more players are coming into the market and would be grateful if the Minister of State could provide an update on that. If it is not possible for him to do so in public, perhaps we could have a private conversation later. The duty of care legislation is an absolute nec…

That is the best news I have heard in relation to public liability insurance but the Government must make sure it happens. I have spoken previously about insurance for those in the entertainment sector. At this point in time, none of the companies that offer bouncy castles for hire has insurance and that needs to be rectified.

We are discussing special needs and disability and I agree with many previous speakers that it is all about delivering for our citizens as regards their rights and entitlements in education and any other area. They should not be discriminated against on the basis of their special need or disability. Let us reverse this and deal with the issues parents face in an awful lot of cases. Whether it is financial supports, housing, supports inside and outside school, speech and language therapy or occupational therapy, we …

I would like to deal with the issue of the Irish protocol. Britain has shown itself not to be a great supporter of international law, as Boris Johnson clings on to power with the help of the European Research Group and puts himself in the same bracket as Erdoğan, Putin and Viktor Orbán. Like most occupying forces, the rule of law was never top of the agenda for Britain in the North. That can be seen from the damages awarded to the Ballymurphy families, and this is only one of many examples. We have to deal with the…

My colleagues have stated our position. We will obviously support this. We cannot have a case where we do not facilitate court presenters. I think Deputy Kenny stated we will table an amendment. It does not make sense to us that these presenters would not be sergeants or higher, because they need to be. We need to make sure we do not end up with a novice or probationary garda in that position. I also reiterate that we need to move this on. This function should be operated by the Office of the Chief State Solicitor.…

There is no point repeating the question. On the DAA, we all accept that it was a disaster and that the authority is paying for some of the sins of the past. The Minister of State referred to mid-July. Does that mean that by mid-July every one of the additional 370 staff previously identified as being needed will be in place, trained and certified? Anybody who has been in the airport recently will have noticed that it is getting by on a wing and a prayer. There is a sense that every other service, from cleaning to …

I am asking for an update on the national broadband plan, including design, build, premises passed and connections made, and the particular works that need to be done to catch up on the dreadful Covid delays, and delivering on the accelerated roll-out we have spoken about many times before. We all know that this plan has been dogged by many issues. People really require delivery on Internet connectivity and the pressure is on us to ensure it is delivered.

I welcome the fact that when we are talking about premises surveyed, premises designed or in design and premises under construction, the numbers are considerable. That means there is a significant amount of throughput. I am hardly on my own in still being particularly worried about that figure of 56,600 passed whereas we have had multiple targets to hit 60,000 at the end of January and the end of March. The plan is to reach 102,000 by the end of January next. We need to make sure that target is at least met. Beyond…