This is not the first time we have been in here in respect of the State's abject and absolute failure of the most vulnerable in society. We have a report and my colleagues and others have stated eloquently how it has not done the business it was required to do. The report has a massive cost of €13.6 million and makes the finding of an absence of oversight and monitoring of Grace. We know the reasons the commission was engaged in the first place. It was because there were allegations of brutal assault, physical, sex…

I take this opportunity to commend the Louth under-20s and Fergal Reel, their manager, on what was obviously a fabulous win in the Leinster final against Meath. The minors are playing in the quarter finals tonight against Westmeath in Hunterstown and I hope that goes well. We obviously have an historic injustice that needs to be dealt with at the Leinster senior final on 11 May.

I would think that most right-thinking people will offer support. Let me refer to a very serious issue. It concerns one of my constituents who contacted me. She had been working for Liberty IT as part of Liberty Mutual. She believes that in her section, which is in Dublin but with an awful lot of remote working, about 100 jobs are gone, and possibly another 20 in Cavan. She would have dealt with claims related to home protection and such in the US. In a six-minute meeting, the staff were told the jobs in question w…

The tenant in situ purchase scheme was a means of saving people from homelessness. It is frightening that Louth County Council, which was provided €18.884 million last year for social housing acquisitions, has only been provided €12 million this year. That is a reduction of 36%. The previous Deputy spoke about the tighter constraints and conditions. In my engagement with Louth County Council, it said it will be able to apply this scheme to fewer people. People in the same circumstances as those who previously were …

The AI Action Summit issued the Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet. That sounds wonderful. It is how we deliver it and what our plan is in this State in that regard. We all know the dangers of artificial intelligence in the sense that it is the garnering of information and machine learning on a huge level, or on steroids for want of a better term. That can be used for good and ill. It is how we wed the absolute necessity that we are part of this in the context o…

This is not the first time I have given out about the divisional structure. I have said many times that I am not sure the most sensible solution was combining Louth and Cavan-Monaghan into one area with a single superintendent. We all get the idea of streamlining, but the issue, as Deputy Carthy said, is that the number of gardaí to operate the system is insufficient. There is a major issue with community gardaí - we do not have enough of them - and with specialists units. We await the arrival of community safety p…

Deputy Cullinane and my other colleagues have dealt with the gamut of failure in respect of scoliosis operations, the lack of such operations, the time children lost and the great impact this had. We have also heard about the significant capacity issues there have been and the non-medical grade springs that ended up in three children and the untold impact that had. However, I will deal specifically with those children who may have gone through operations they did not require for hip dysplasia. Thanks to Deputy Cull…

I know but the daughter involved has undergone two surgeries. The week before the story broke, the surgery, for which she had been waiting for three years, was cancelled with 24 hours' notice. Dealing with Temple Street is like dealing with a sheet in the wind. Everything is a sort of vague response.

Meanwhile, the girl's father is left wondering if she even needs the surgery. I will provide the Minister with the information. That is the issue with all of this.

I had an opportunity earlier to discuss this issue and I discussed my constituent, who luckily got a second opinion for his daughter who was at that stage three years and three months old. She had been engaged with Temple Street since 2016 when she was 14 months old. I put some of this information on the record earlier. At the end of 2018, the doctor recommended proceeding with a Salter osteotomy bilaterally. That is one of the brutal operations we are talking about with the cutting into the hips and all that goes …

This relates to 1970 and 1973. The man was kept there for a considerable amount of time-----

-----and it relates to those particular issues. I will pass the information to the Minister.

I am looking for the figures on unfilled positions within each CDNT in the State. Obviously, we had the workforce report from last October and that has since been published. The big question concerns the numbers that were outstanding. At one time, it was almost 530 positions. Even if those positions are filled, are we able to provide the service that is required through the CDNT system?

We all welcome increased recruitment but the fact is that whatever the figures say, we have all been inundated with requests from parents who cannot get assessments or therapies for their children. We all know the issue. We have all had an over-and-back in regard to the fact school-based therapies could deal with some of this issue. However, if we look at the recruitment levels on the basis of how this happened last year, it would take at least two years at the same speed to fill the gaps and achieve a complete wor…

We all know the issues with regard to recruitment and retention but we also know the absolute need that is out there and the abject failure there has been for many years, which continues at this point in time. Everyone would say it is beyond doubt that we need to engage in domestic and international initiatives, and we should be looking at every sort of pipeline to ensure we can get as many highly trained OTs, SLTs, psychologists and other specialists as possible. This would ensure we could deliver everything from …

I will restate the question I asked earlier. We all know there is a huge amount of vacancy. Even if there have been improvements, when this workforce report was carried out there were, I think, 529.72 whole-time equivalent positions. We need to really ensure that is dealt with. Even if we fill those positions, though, does that mean we have a CDNT system that is actually able to deliver for those who require the assessments and then the therapies? The therapies are meant to follow but we know they do not at the mom…

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss the scheduling of apprenticeship carpenters, electricians and other trades for off-site training. Deputy James O'Connor - To discuss school transport issues in the Kilcredan National School catchment area. Deputy Gary Gannon - To discuss the lack of suitable afterschool facilities in Dublin 1. Deputy Malcolm Byrne - To discu…

A considerable amount has already been said about how vital water is. That goes without saying. It is not difficult to make such an argument. A fair amount has been said, especially recently, when we have seen flyers from the other side about the return of water charges. A public service model is all that will be acceptable to the Irish people, so we just need to make sure we get to that point. There can be no possibility of privatisation or water charges. That is utterly unacceptable. That ship has sailed, or at l…

I was told initial protection would be provided in 2026. We must make sure that happens. We must also ensure that communication takes place.

I also want to bring a particular issue to the attention of the Minister of State about the waiver system where someone made an application and I believe there are mitigating circumstances.