I welcome what the Minister of State has said. It is an acceptance that we do not have enough foster carers. We need a lot more, so we need to deal with all of these issues. I accept that the Minister of State's Department deals with a particular part of this, but the main play is with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. I assume all of the necessary conversations are happening. We know there have been particular issues over the years relating to the length of time for payment of…

Will the Minister outline the engagement her Department has had with other Government agencies and Departments on the problems being faced by workers who live in the North but work in companies based in the South and who may wish to work from home or engage in remote working. The example I use is PayPal, which closed its premises. Its employees who live in the North had to be transferred to PayPal UK although they had availed of benefits in the South and all the rest of it.

We need a solution that works across the board but the Department of Social Protection has a part to play.

In fairness to the Minister, she is not the only member of the Government I have put this question to. I raised it with the Taoiseach earlier this week, and not for the first time. This issue needs to be taken to Cabinet level and addressed. I accept it is beyond the Minister's remit but there is a need for HMRC and Revenue to have fully-fledged conversations on providing a solution. The Minister mentioned some of the stakeholders, including Dundalk Chamber of Commerce. I am fairly sure this is an issue that it has…

It probably does not come as any shock to an awful lot of people that there is an issue that the British Government is not willing, at this point in time, to sort out. We have to play our part in looking for a solution. This is an issue across every border. The OECD is looking at putting a deal together but I imagine we could be waiting a hell of a long time before that happens. At a governmental level, there has to be an intervention and an interaction with the British Government. We want to see the likes of the s…

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Deputy Farrell spoke at the end of his contribution about trees. We all know the huge body of work that needs to be done with afforestation and we know about the difficulties, which are in the public domain and have been over and back on investment funds right through to grant schemes that are fit for purpose. That definitely needs to happen. My last conversation with the local ranger would have been talking about trees and dealing wi…

This is a timely motion, as we see the devastating effects of a scandal within a commercial State-sponsored body. I am fairly sure I do not have to name it, as I think everyone will realise I am talking about RTÉ. I do not want to prejudice the work of the relevant committees or wherever else this has to go. I will quote from the briefing note, which states the proposal "will impose an obligation on Member States to adopt effective rules on open access to information of public interest, the disclosure and managemen…

I thank the Committee on Budgetary Oversight for doing this work. I thank its members for allowing me to take part in some of the committee's deliberations. The committee heard from a considerable number of witnesses, including representatives of Screen Ireland, Screen Producers Ireland, the Screen Guilds of Ireland and the Irish Film Workers Association. John Arkins and Liz Murray were in the audiovisual room earlier to engage with a number of Oireachtas Members. The recommendations that have been made are importa…

We need a nature restoration law but like all laws, it needs to be workable. There were significant issues relating to this in its inception. I accept that considerable work has been done. That is the idea of negotiation and politics. We get to something that works. I would like to think that nobody is going to stand up and say that we are not in the middle of a biodiversity crisis. The figure about 1 million species facing extinction will not leave my head. In fairness to Deputy O'Rourke, he laid out the particula…

I again raise the issue of Louth County Council and housing adaptation grants. Louth County Council has a request in for €570,000 but even if it gets that, it will need match funding of €114,000 and that will not even begin to cover the list, which currently stands at 580 people. I have spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, about the fact the review needs to relate to the entire system in order that we can engage and offer the right amounts for those people who need grants for housing adaptation, such …

Necessary interventions have to be taken, whether we are talking about the north-east inner city or elsewhere. Similar interventions were laid out for Drogheda following the feud. We had the Guerin report and the Drogheda implementation plan and a board was put in place. I would bring up the issue again of the family addiction support network, which is an absolutely vital cog that provides supports that no one else does for families. This is not only for the Minister of State responsible for the national drugs stra…

We all accept that remote working is a real positive for many people. I have brought up the issue before with regard to cross-Border remote workers who are not facilitated at present. I use the example of PayPal in Dundalk, when it closed its premises and everyone was put on remote working, that those in the North needed to be transferred to PayPal UK. Obviously, a large international company can do that. As small companies are not capable of doing that, we are failing many of those in the Border areas. The OECD is…

I would like to bring up the case of the Family Addiction Support Network in Dundalk. The Guerin report and the Drogheda implementation report spoke about the important work it does, particularly with families. It is sometimes the go-to body for those who are not necessarily comfortable with going to the Garda about drug debt, intimidation and the huge issues there are with those matters. Those involved have had numerous meetings with the HSE on funding, but it is not really cutting the mustard. They have even met …

This all comes down to trust. Anybody we have spoken to in recent days has told us about their absolute lack of trust in RTÉ. In fairness, most of them talk about the fact that they feel absolutely sickened by what has happened, but I could not say they are shocked. That is half the problem. We all know the issues that have existed for a long period regarding certain of the big players in RTÉ who are paid a huge amount of money. To a degree, RTÉ put up its hands last week - it took a fair bit of arm-twisting before…

That is before we start looking into the ins and outs of what exactly was in that barter account. That is a phrase no one is going to forget in the near future. I know that two reviews have been set up at this point in time, but culture, governance and the means by which business is done in RTÉ must be examined so that we deliver public sector broadcasting as it should be.

The A5 - enough is enough. That is the message that must be agreed across this House. We can talk about the fact that planning in the North has been disastrous. A small number of objectors have been able to hold up this project. We know the issues in relation to partition and underinvestment in the Border areas, particularly in the north west. We could talk about regional imbalance until tomorrow morning and probably longer. We know it is an absolute necessity from a financial point of view to open this part of Ire…

What consideration or plans are there for budget 2024? We are aware of myriad issues around foster carers’ payments and particular conditions. The Minister had said there were certain things he wanted to deliver on previously. I hope he will have an opportunity to deliver on these in this budget.

I appreciate that. First and foremost the allowance needs to be dealt with. What the Minister has said about his interaction with IFCA and Movement 4 Change in Fostercare is very positive. I have a list of issues I was going to bring up with him and he has dealt with some of them, including the pension. There have been issues with the contributory pension for foster carers and with child benefit. The Minister also referred to, which I had failed to do, the vital role foster carers play for kids that come to them, e…

That is all very positive. We need to see that paper and the recommendations in it and see them enacted, whether we are talking about pensions or whatever else. The Minister has dealt with the issue and he has been quite clear that the allowance issue will be dealt with, having not increased since 2009. We have to look at the travel expenses and all those other benefits that these parents and children are sometimes not able to avail of. I would agree that this sometimes involves kids who would have considerable ext…

We all understand the importance of the tech sector in Ireland. We are a major hub, not only from a European point of view but also from a global point of view. Obviously, regulation is vital. The difficulty is that there has not always been a great relationship when regulation and legislation meet technology. We just spoke about artificial intelligence. We all know there are great advantages in the medtech sector, but we also know the dangers. Some of the jobs that have been displaced in the tech sector are down t…