I agree that we need to streamline the amendment system for passports because it is an issue. I would also ask if we have looked into improving the situation where members of the Garda have to sign passport applications. We still occasionally get the situation where the Passport Office rings the Garda station and nobody can locate the book. The fact that we are looking for the book is probably not the greatest set of circumstances.

They definitely have. I just got a query about it this week; that is the only reason I raised it.

Not for the first time I will ask the Minister of State for an update on the roll-out of the national broadband plan, the number of premises passed, and if he could make a statement on the matter. In fairness, I will be looking to see if there has been any movement in regard to an acceleration of the process, reducing it from seven years to six years and whether we have finalised deadlines and timelines for all those people, even those who are going to be at the tail end of it. I will deal with some mitigation ques…

If I heard the Minister of State correctly, 147,000 can pre-order and 135,000 premises were passed. I assume that those numbers fall within the updated timelines for delivery, in particular as regards premises passed. I hope there are no hiccups in the future, as there had been previously, accepting the issues in regard to Covid, etc. From my own discussions with NBI, my understanding is that what is a seven-year programme can be accelerated to a six-year programme. There are some legal issues that are being dealt …

I ask if we could just get the connection rate in relation to NBI, accepting that it is resellers who sell the product to clients and customers. The Minister of State pre-empted what I was going to ask. It is about the work ComReg has done in relation to making assessments. Some people will be at the tail end of delivery and we need to offer them the alternatives easily. The mobile phone and broadband task force could probably do the heavy lifting on that. That is a vital piece of work we could do, as well as ensur…

There will be a considerable amount of agreement on what we have lost in monuments and heritage sites over many years. There will be a certain element of welcome for the Bill to ensure we have our protective tools in place. There is still room for improvement. I do not think it will come as a shock that I will mention Wood Quay given that my colleagues and others have raised this travesty. We are still looking at the Moore Street battlefield site becoming a possible travesty. We have partial protection of certain p…

I do not believe that any of us is happy about the issue of public liability insurance. It was in the first six months of last year that we had a drop in the cost of motor insurance premiums of approximately 5%. I do not believe that anybody is of the view that this is sufficiently significant. The Government has indicated that 90% of its action plan for insurance reform is done and that the insurance industry is aware of what has to follow. I would expect that the issue relating to the duty-of-care legislation wil…

As I said previously, I welcome any news regarding any new players coming into the market. Obviously, we need them to come into the market and then offer something that is fair and reasonable. I think it was the president of the European Confederation of Outdoor Employers who spoke about what we are dealing with at this point in time as being very much an Irish phenomenon. An example was given in Portugal of €400 public liability insurance for a company with a turnover of €50,000. We really need to be getting into …

It is only a week since I was in here having done what everyone usually does, namely, checking daft.ie . At the time, there were 15 houses available in Dundalk. There are now eight. I look through the rents and I see €1,650 and €1,900. These figures are crazy. I do not know how anybody could contemplate or put the money together in relation to that. I note there is a house with a considerable amount of bedrooms renting for €3,000. I do not know I could have told somebody a number of years ago that one could be payi…

If we are serious about tackling child poverty, first of all, we have to deal with those necessary services that are not available to our citizens. We are talking about those in the most peripheral of places and the most disadvantaged. I have spoken to the Taoiseach before to say that what we really need are these early interventions. Those include family support interventions and also wider community interventions. We need to put a plan in place for that. On the day that AsIAm is here, when we are talking about ma…

I support Deputy McDonald in her point that it does not make much sense to look at this initiative unless we have a review of it. The same goes for the Drogheda implementation board and its plan. Many things are happening that I definitely support. Some of this is about streamlining the communication between agencies, but I do not think there are sufficient resources to do the business we need to do. In the past few days, parents have come to me because they are worried about their children who are in the throes of…

We remember the Good Friday Agreement, which was signed 25 years ago. We look back on the period as a time when hope, courage and vision came into place when they were needed. We would like to see that in the future, particularly in light of the constrained circumstances in which we find ourselves. Let us talk about the history of the North. Partition was copper-fastened 100 years ago through the threat of terrible and immediate war. There was a history of pogroms, supremacy and sectarianism. There were Northern na…

I believe the Irish people are very much committed to non-alignment and neutrality. We see what is happening in Sudan and we hope the evacuation of Irish citizens is going as well as it can be. Questions about our capacity will need to be answered. We are also talking about cyber and hybrid threats. There is talk of the telecommunications cables. I want to know what has been done as regards due diligence in relation to ensuring we are secure from this point of view.

I spoke to the Taoiseach previously about the tech sector. Obviously, there have been a number of difficulties owing to job losses. Is the Taoiseach still assured that the sector is absolutely strong, given the State's significant reliance on it? Could I raise an issue I brought up previously, namely the difficulty whereby remote workers are not allowed to work for employers across the Border? This has meant that 120 or possibly more PayPal workers who had been working in the South had to be transferred to what is …

I ask for an update regarding any work being done, or any proposals, relating to the Government or local authorities combating the issue of dog attacks on sheep.

When is it expected that adequate resources for genetic services in Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin, formerly known as Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, will be provided? Those living with rare diseases can sometimes wait over two years for a diagnosis and referral for genetic testing. Sometimes, they can be treated for the wrong condition. These are services that are required, so the sooner they are provided, the better. When exactly will this happen?

The Minister should cover all of it.

It is specifically about genetic testing capacity and making this happen sooner rather than later. The Minister is talking about new staff, which is obviously positive. When will they be in place and where will they operate from? Are we talking about Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin? I imagine we are. We all know, as I say, that 300,000 people are living with a rare disease. At this point in time, they are not being served well. The major issue is that we do not have the capacity to deliver what can be deliv…

That is most certainly what is required. The Minister spoke about the Get Rare Aware campaign. It comes back to the same question about the timeline for these people being in place. Where exactly will they all be based? What will be the capacity for genetic testing? The crux of the matter is when this new plan will be in play, when the people will be in position and what the timelines for testing and diagnosis will be, given that some of these conditions can be very rare. The sooner the intervention can be made, th…

Could I get some detail on the Minister's proposals to support the approximately 4,000 so-called "forgotten farmers"? Could we have a timeline in this regard? We are obviously talking about young farmers impacted by austerity measures and who could not avail of installation aid and young farmer supports under CAP. The Minister spoke several times about the need to deal with this, so we need a timeline.