I accept, particularly in the beginning, that problems arose specific to the pandemic. We all know that in big infrastructural projects one gets better as one goes along. That is accepted, but it is a matter of ensuring that this happens. I have had conversations with NBI. It is obviously looking for what it terms "a self-install product" which would give it a greater capacity to deliver on part of the build. Its conversations, as far as I understand, with Eir are that Eir has increased its capacity to make sure it…

Yes, it is.

We must deal with this issue of communal heating systems. I have spoken many times to the Minister previously about Carlinn Hall. In fairness to Deputy Hourigan, she got to the point that we have a slight break for the moment because of the time of year but that we must examine this issue now. The gas-fed nature of these systems must be dealt with under planning laws. This is an aberration that happened in Britain and Ireland. The laws have been changed in Britain. We need a Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland,…

I do not know whether I should frame this as a complaint. The Minister was in Coláiste Chú Chulainn this week. My nieces, Makayla and Leah, whom I name to embarrass, now have more pictures with the Minister than they do with me. They were there to facilitate the graduation and I am told they presented the Minister with a tie.

I see that. I was not able to make it to this obviously very important event, especially for those graduating. I will embarrass a number of people in my family now, but there is a logic to where I am going. My son, Conor, attends another Louth and Meath Education and Training Board, LMETB, school, Ó Fiaich College. I have to thank to it for the work it has done. Our Conor, a bit like myself, has taken a circuitous route in his schooling. However, he has seen my stepson, Aaron, do a post-leaving certificate course i…

We have all been inundated in our constituency offices by people looking for adaptation grants and those on the waiting lists. I spoke to the council this week. Generally there has been a two-year backlog. It has probably reduced to a year and a half. In fairness the absolute majority of people on the lists are top priority and this is the reality. We all know we are dealing with spiralling prices and costs. There are supply chain issues that can create difficulties even where builders are on site. This will create…

We have now had sight of the four-point plan by the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, to ensure we do not again see the absolutely scandalous sights that took place in Dublin Airport over the weekend. Upwards of 1,400 people may have missed flights and it was an utterly desperate situation for them. We hope the plan will offer some element of security that we will not have these problems again. Do we have those assurances? Have the Government and, in particular, the Minister for Transport looked at the possibility of …

I add my voice to what many of my colleagues have spoken about and we are glad that we are getting to grips with an issue we have failed miserably with in this State over many years. However, I cannot help but think that this Bill is somewhat too rushed. We have heard Members say already that questions remain on its workability and on whether it is failing. That is on either side of the argument on assisted decision-making and dealing with the wider issue of capacity. Like I said, we have a history in this State of…

I am also interested in the timeline for the national implementation office and, in particular, when regeneration officers will be appointed at local authority level. We have spoken previously about necessary works at the Creative Spark Downtown Hub in Dundalk, the remote working hub that is up and running now and is a real success in what was a vacant site. We have a lot more to do and it is important that a town the size of Dundalk has sufficient resources to enable it to increase footfall in the town by enabling…

We have spoken previously about this issue in home care. We all welcomed the work of the workforce advisory group. It has to look at the issues of visas and tax breaks. Pay rates have to be on the table, as well as expenses. There are anomalies among the various CHOs. However, we need a timeline. Beyond that, there is the wider issue of workforce planning to ensure we will have enough people to be able to cover what needs to be done because there are families under significant pressure as they cannot get people to …

Deputy Boyd Barrett has spoken about the fact we need early interventions. I raised a Topical Issue matter on this and spoke about Louth and Dundalk and the lack of occupational therapists, OTs, and speech and language therapists in the area. There are people who have been assessed and who are being told they will not get services for a year or two years. Obviously, that is not on. I am back to the same issue. It is a matter of ensuring we have the throughput of training and we remove all obstacles. Beyond that, we…

It goes without saying that students, and apprentices in particular, are impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. Before the recent hike in home heating oil and electricity, there was the issue of rents, which are a huge cost that are a bane to students and their families. As many have mentioned, we are still dealing with a backlog in apprenticeships. It is unfair that somebody could sign up for a four-year apprenticeship that ends up being five or six years. That has a huge economic and wider impact on the apprentic…

We have been in the position before of there being a problem with the issuing of passports. We were told on that occasion that the number of staff in the Passport Office would be increased, if not doubled. I accept that this work is being done at the moment, which is absolutely necessary. However, we need a very quick audit of how many staff will be needed to deliver the service we require at this point in time. That needs to be done straight away. I am repeating what every other speaker has said in pointing out th…

I raise the issue of the loss of 307 PayPal jobs, 172 in Dundalk and 135 in Ballycoolin, which will kick in from 27 June. What was the Government's engagement before this shocking news was broken this morning to workers and their families? Promises have been made by PayPal of good packages. This needs to be ensured. We still do not have clarity as to whether these jobs are being relocated. There needs to be continuing engagement to ensure supports and packages and there is a huge job to be done by the Government an…

We are dealing at the moment with attacks on democracy and truth and the necessity for real journalism. Many have mentioned the issue of the social media giants, the working of their algorithms and how they, at times, facilitate the telling of mistruths. We have a duty of care and protection for the vital work, particularly in conflict situations, carried out by journalists. In our country, we remember the courageous work carried out by Veronica Guerin, Lyra McKee and Martin O'Hagan. Unfortunately, these people pai…

What measures are being considered to the yearly increase in the number of applications to the CAO system and the lack of places for the most in-demand courses? I ask that the Minister take into account the issue of having to deal still with the issue of grade inflation, the date of results, which is an issue for a great number of students and parents, and the particular issue of necessary workforce planning.

I welcome the Minister's answer. A major issue that needs to be taken into account, as Deputy Conway-Walsh mentioned, is that colleges, on the basis of the funding structure, may sometimes choose to offer particular courses because it makes more financial sense to do so. We need to deal with that aspect. In regard to the whole issue of workforce planning, lifelong learning and the various route maps through education, the Minister spoke about the national skills architecture. Will he give some detail in that regard…

This is an issue we certainly will be revisiting into the future. I welcome the Minister's commitment in this regard. I will do now what I generally do, which is to apologise and raise a related question. The question will not shock the Minister greatly. It is a specific question about technological university status for Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, which he visited recently. I have had my own meetings lately at which I have heard some positive information in regard to criteria being met. However, there s…

I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin for his work on this. He has dealt with what I am going to discuss, and a lot more eloquently than I will. What we are talking about is straightforward. It is education as the great leveller, to use Deputy Ó Ríordáin's words. We are talking about ensuring that there is an equal playing field in respect of access. I welcome the fact that there has been an element of analysis and it looks like there is going to be a further element of analysis. As for every piece of legislation, due diligenc…

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this forward. I often get up here and say that I will not repeat what has already been said and then I repeat exactly what was said, but in this case it is impossible not to because it takes about 30 seconds to point out that the Government will hand €450 million to developers. There is no affordability win. All we are doing is failing to use that money to deliver housing for people. It is an abject, absolute failure. It does not make any sense whatsoever. We have already h…