I welcome to the Public Gallery my friends, Bertie, Helen, Denise and David, who are visiting the Dáil today. The issue I will home in on first in reference to the Bill is agriculture. The residential zoned land tax has been a source of much confusion, concern and anxiety for farmers and people who own land adjacent to towns in which the zoning has come into play. The tax has been deferred and I have had a commitment from the Taoiseach, given in the House, that nobody who has a functional farm will be liable for th…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important subject. A huge debate is going on between the HSE and the Government as to whether there is enough money in the health budget to deal with services over the next 12 months. That is an unfortunate position in which to find ourselves at a time when the country has plenty of money, but I do not mean the Minister should go along and spend that unwisely or throw it at the system. Nevertheless, engagement needs to happen between the Health Service Executive and the Mi…

I ask the Minister for the processing times for carer's allowance applications, the sequential processing time for applications sent for review by applicants and the refusals that are under appeal by applicants. I am particularly interested in her response regarding the Department's frequent refusal of applications from individuals who serve as full-time carers for those struggling with acute depression and suicidal tendencies. Will the Minister make a statement on this?

I thank the Minister. I accept that all of the budgetary measures have been put in place. I refer, however, to the time it takes for carer's allowance applications to be processed. This is a very acute issue for somebody who gives up work to care for someone at home. This might happen suddenly if there is no other choice, especially when a member of the family is experiencing depression and the carer has to be with him or her full time. Carers are often asked to apply for supplementary welfare while they are waitin…

I welcome the review and I hope it will be implemented. Perhaps the Minister will outline what she sees as a reasonable timeframe for each decision to be made. Something else that happens is that the appeals office states it is waiting for documentation to come from the Department. I and other Deputies, including Deputy Lowry, are working on cases in the process with long waiting times. It is not always down to the paperwork not being fully there. In many cases it is just not getting through the system quickly enou…

Seanad Éireann has passed the Control of Exports Bill 2023 without amendment.

I call Deputy Cathal Crowe.

This is a simple enough question for the Minister, but it is an interesting and important one. What steps is he taking to assist members of the Travelling community to access third level education, and will he make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister for that positive response. As a former lecturer in the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, GMIT, in Galway, I saw very few from the Travelling community passing through the built environment section as students. When I was working in the private sector I experienced Travellers who had gone to third level education, got their engineering degrees, and were out on sites working and contributing to society. They were also models for other young Travellers who might be contemplating third level ed…

I agree wholeheartedly with the Minister's approach. It is important and a matter of changing attitudes. We will reap the benefits with more people coming into the workforce and more education within the Travelling community, which will be of benefit to everybody and to create that as a norm rather than an exception. I cannot let the moment go without asking how the Minister got on in Mountbellew at the agricultural college. If they were to do veterinary courses we would have a situation where people locally, inclu…

The training of apprentices is important and must be done in a timely manner. There has been a hugely positive reaction to the level of apprentices going into the system and the expansion of apprenticeships but I concur with the Deputy that if we do not have the processes right for people to get qualified in a timely manner, the good work being done will be in vain. Young people get demoralised by having to wait. They are not moving up the scale from phase 2 to phase 3 or getting the increment in their pay. They se…

I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this very important issue. No more than any other Teachta Dála, in my constituency in Galway East I have received numerous requests from young people especially who are trying to get a driving licence and trying to get an appointment to do their tests. The problem is twofold in my constituency. First, it is a rural constituency and we do not have the public transport. Young people take up work and buy a car to do their training but then they must wait and can…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this important motion. When I read the budget, I thought there would be more money in it for disabilities. When I saw the Minister of State's announcement on the same evening, I thought there was something else in the budget that we missed. Unfortunately, it is what it is. The current funding is an additional €64 million, which, as we all know, falls short of what the Minister of State needs in order to try to make an impact on improving the lives of people with disabilities. …

On the rates revaluation happening in County Galway, I was contacted by a businessman who submitted appeals in respect of three of his offices last November. He did not receive a response. Last week, he was in Tuam for a public consultation and was told by a person from the Valuation Office that it had no record of the appeals. When he met a more senior person, that man apologised profusely and said that the office does not have the people it needs to deal with appeals. The man to whom I refer will now have to go t…

They do not have the resources.

People are needed.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on what is a very emotive issue for everyone in the House. I welcome the people in the Gallery. On a normal day they have other things to do to look after the work and the services they are providing. Everyone knows that if we do not pay our workers properly they will go where they will get better pay for doing the same work. That is the kernel of the problem but it has gone way beyond that because it is now a service provision issue. Services have been closing over the past six o…

I want to change the subject matter to housing, which is a very pressing matter in this country. My concern relates to the lack of wastewater treatment plants in our towns and villages in our country. I know that back in April 2022, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage announced €50 million in funding for wastewater treatment plants. He asked every local authority to submit two proposals so that they could be assessed. Today is 11 October, and we still have not seen any of these projects progress…

The first thing I would say is that the local authorities submitted their applications in September 2022. We are now gone 13 months and maybe in another two months we might have a decision. That is not the end of the story. It is only then that the local authorities will start the procurement of consultants, the design and the procurement of sites. We will probably see these treatment plants coming on stream in about five years' time if we are lucky. We need to tackle this issue as a national issue. We need to put …

I will set out a few different things in the budget, which I would like to comment on. First, I welcome the tax relief for mortgage holders. However, I cannot understand how somebody with a mortgage of less than €80,000 is getting no relief. That is something we need to look at in the Finance Act. I welcome that additional funding is going into childcare supports. We will wait to see the details of it, but some of it will not come until September 2024, which is an issue. I am disappointed with the help-to-buy schem…