I welcome the interaction the Minister has had. I believe there will have to be, as I said, a directive and clarity because, even for groups that have a service level agreement, SLA, with Tusla, there is still difficulty. In that regard, long-term, I think those early intervention pieces that fall within Tusla's remit may need to be nearly separated from the acute child protection issues Tusla deals with. That is what creates difficulty, and Tusla is then not seen by many families as a fair arbiter. We need to look…

I agree with much of what has been said here today. We are talking about the tourism and aviation sectors - two sectors that were hammered by the pandemic we have been through. Some of that pain will continue to be felt into the future, so it will be necessary to keep everything under consistent and constant review. Business and individual supports will be necessary. I agree with points made previously in respect of the fact that we should never miss an opportunity provided by the sort of chaos that we have been th…

While I welcome much of what has been said today on the National Youth Justice Strategy, we can have all the plans that we want but unless adequate resources are provided, they will not mean anything. I agree with previous speakers that this State has a history of conducting pilot projects. Those pilot projects, if successful, need to be reviewed, best practice must be put in place and the projects must be operated across the State, particularly in those urban settings that suffer most from the type of crime we are…

On the national childcare scheme, we all accept that it is a job activation scheme. The problem is that disadvantaged kids have been getting after-school care and such under the community childcare subvention programme, CCSP. A number of bodies may possibly close in the next while. I have dealt with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, in this regard. A review of this scheme is ongoing, as is a review of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, funding but this will not happen until November. We need solu…

We are in a better position now as regards where we are from a health point of view. There have been very dark days. During some of those dark days, the Dáil could not meet in this setting and instead had to meet in the convention centre. While that might have suited me in that I am able to get up and walk around, it probably did not suit other Members who might be somewhat more normal. That has been said before. I will probably be dreadfully sorry about saying what I have just said.

Yes. Everything is in context. We are in a better place. We have had huge buy-in from the community in regard to vaccination and adherence to guidelines and rules, although people were not always happy to do so. That was often uncomfortable for an awful lot of them and for many of us, but we are now at this particular place. On 22 October, we move to the next stage, which will bring us to whatever normality means in this day and age. As has been said by many of my Sinn Féin colleagues and by many Deputies across th…

We have had a number of interesting interventions in the past while. There is an acceptance of the situation we are in with regard to climate change and the necessity for changes to secure our future. I agree with the commentary on a whole-of-government response and if we are talking about just transition and ensuring security, sustainability and capacity to deliver on climate action, we need such a response. We need a connectivity of ideas and not what is happening, in that sometimes we have silo options and eleme…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this question. I assume Members have, as I have, experienced multiple call-ins to our constituency offices by families struggling to get carers in order for them to put a home care programme in place so they can keep their loved one in their home. There were numerous reports in the last year, particularly during the pandemic, when many of us recognised the type of work done by carers, and how their work makes a huge impact in our State and society, in addition to saving the …

I welcome that answer from the Minister of State. She stated clearly and I accept that the issue now is not one of funding but involves a shortage of staff. I also welcome the establishment of the strategic workforce advisory group. To quote someone else, we must do the devil and all to ensure that we can deliver the staff required. It is as simple as that. The problem concerns added pieces to fill the gap. As this pilot is worked out, I would like to think that it will catch some of the mistakes made before. That …

We have all witnessed the Brexit chaos in Britain at this point, but we have an impending disaster as we face into Christmas, which could even impact the Santa Claus supply chain. The issue relates to people looking to import items. On 1 July, stringent new EU customs rules were introduced. Certain companies have failed to prepare and may not necessarily be providing the correct information. This is not being filtered, particularly when it is posted from Britain. It means we have a stockpile here and there is a maj…

We are talking about Housing for All, but my fear is that what is being proposed is just a continuation of the failures of Rebuilding Ireland and that we will not manage to deliver the housing for all our people require. None of us need to go into the ins and outs of the difficulties. I am sure the Minister of State, similar to everyone in the Chamber, is inundated with people who cannot get on the housing list, people who can get on the housing list but cannot get a council house and, beyond that, people who canno…

Whatever our plan is and whatever engagement we have on Afghanistan, I would agree with what many previous speakers have said in that it has to be from the point of view of putting human rights in a primary position. I welcome what the Minister has said about the 1,200 people who are being facilitated to come here. That is necessary work and it is a piece of humanity that we have to offer. It is incumbent on other states, particularly on those with power and wealth, to deliver for these people. We have to use our p…

Deputy Matthews makes a fair point. We also need to take into account, and we all accept the necessity of, the national broadband plan, NBP, roll-out. National Broadband Ireland, NBI, has stated that if this is to be accelerated, it will have an absolute requirement for resource allocation as regards planning permissions and road opening licences, particularly. NBI is referring to planners and engineers and said that it will need that sort of resource to be guaranteed. That is even with the streamlining that has oc…

Everybody accepts the need to get to the end of this review and that income thresholds need to be looked at. Basically, they need to go up. We have major issues in relation to people who are caught in the poverty trap and cannot afford housing without housing assistance payments. This needs to be dealt with. I spoke to the Minister previously about the assessment situation. There are added difficulties with the new means by which local authorities are carrying out assessments. They have spoken to us about this and …

I want to add my voice to those of the previous two speakers in regard to the need for any system we put together for Irish language teaching to take into account provision from naíonra level right up to third level. That consultation is necessary before we put plans in place. I thank the Minister for her support for Coláiste Ghlór na Mara and its satellite school, which was previously known as Coláiste Lú, in County Louth. There are still logistical difficulties but I know there has been a conversation about the p…

I thank Deputy Bacik for bringing this legislative measure forward. We are dealing with "renovictions". In that context, protections are needed for people who are losing their tenancies. I agree that the accidental landlords require a professionalising of the system so they are also protected where there are cases of good landlords and tenants with extra difficulties, etc. We also need to consider extra supports for the councils to deal with such situations. Rent pressure zones have not worked. Linking rents to inf…

We are here to discuss what is obviously a technical Bill. When I heard about the reorganisation and division, and the fact that County Louth was going to be connected with counties Cavan and Monaghan, I had a fear of losing senior gardaí and losing the focus that is needed, particularly in the huge urban settings of Dundalk and Drogheda. Anybody who has watched the news in recent years realises the difficulties we are dealing with there. I accept that there is a certain logic to the streamlining of services. I acc…

Everybody is in agreement about the necessity of ensuring we deal with these issues, particularly in regard to the sharing of vital information - fingerprints, DNA and vehicle registration data. In the world we live in, there is an absolute necessity to ensure we have not only the legislation but also the technological capacity, etc., required to allow us to share information when dealing with crime. We all know how connected criminality is in this day and age. To some degree, criminals are miles ahead of those of …

There has already been mention of the fact that NBI was in front of the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications yesterday. I suppose the welcome news is we are now at a stage where the entire plan, at least the seven-year plan, is there on the website for all to see. We are talking about two matters. We are talking about the acceleration from seven to five years and we are talking about the catch-up in relation to Covid. At present, there is a seven-year plan but the hope is that within the next six to nine…

Perhaps the mobile and broadband task force is the body that can provide that information, if the Minister of State could come back to me on that.