We will have a discussion offline about that. We used to be in government with the Labour Party. You have to be careful not to get too close to that crowd - I jest. I thank the Deputy for raising what is a really serious matter because school secretaries and caretakers are the beating heart of our community. We know them; we know them by name. We all want to see this issue resolved. Conscious of my new position, I do not want to over-comment on discussions between parties that remain confidential other than to say …

There have been eye-watering amounts of public funding allocated to capital, including to the Department of Transport. I would make the point, as I made earlier but I want to make it again, there are lots of projects that will be advanced over the lifetime of this Government and beyond that are not included in yesterday's sectoral investment plan. They are generally projects of below €200 million and TII will publish an annual capital plan, likely in and around January, and the Minister will be in a position to pub…

A minute ago you did not want to spend the money on roads and you criticised us for spending too much money.

Exactly. Roads funding is important and I agree with Deputy Whitmore on this. This is why we have made sure the N11 will advance and I assure Deputy Whitmore that the N81 will too. The N81 is not a project that is expected to reach the threshold there would have been in the sectoral investment plan. I have discussed this with the chief executive of Wicklow County Council also. My broader point is that I will ask the Minister to come back specifically on the public transport projects, including the Luas projects, to…

I thank Deputy Healy for raising a very important matter. Sometimes when you are in my position talk is not cheap and it can be detrimental to very important processes that need to be followed in our labour relations and industrial relations mechanisms in the country. I agree with Deputy Healy's analysis on the hugely positive contribution our school secretaries and caretakers, and the SNAs he referenced in an earlier discussion, make. On Friday, 5 September we had constructive engagement under the auspices of the …

I am sympathetic to some of the points the Deputy makes. I have had discussions with colleagues on this also. CPO is a very important tool but it should be used in very specific instances. I am not certain I am comfortable with its use in relation to greenways. The State should not overcomplicate the situation in relation to greenways. They are good things, and they are things that communities generally want, but there does need to be a bit of common sense in terms of the routes. There has been a degree of complexi…

That is genuinely what I want to happen and I know it is really what the Taoiseach wants to happen. I acknowledge and pay tribute to him for the work he is investing in this personally. He and I had a meeting circa three weeks ago, maybe four, and we are due to meet with the representative group again very shortly. It will be either next week or the week after but it is in the month of December. A huge amount of work is under way to try to get this where it needs to get to. I thank many of the people we know for co…

I thank Deputy Aird for all the work he has been doing over the course of the past year, keeping us under pressure in terms of many projects that are important to the people of Laois, who gave him such a resounding mandate a year ago and I acknowledge this. I thank him for raising this important matter with me. I know it is an issue he has been campaigning on, not only as a TD but during his time on Laois County Council. As Deputy Aird knows, Laois fire service indicated that a new fire station at Stradbally was th…

I will have to check with the relevant Minister on the status of that and will revert to the Deputy directly.

That is a very good idea because we need to do two things. As the Deputy has rightly said, for his constituents in Palmerstown, Chapelizod and in general, we need to build the confidence he has talked about but we also need to be able to track performance in terms of return of investment. We have just announced as a Government a major increase in public transport funding and a major increase in capital funding in general. It is right and proper that agencies of the State are able to account not just to their electe…

I thank Deputy Carrigy for raising this issue. The roll-out of DEIS and DEIS plus, as we have committed to in the programme for Government, is linked to an educational measure but also a child poverty measure. We all know one of the best ways of lifting people out of poverty, including intergenerational poverty, is through our education system. Tackling educational disadvantage moves children out of poverty in the short, medium and long terms. I am determined, as is this Government, that the roll-out of DEIS plus i…

Let me correct the record: we have an excellent Minister who is working very hard but housing is also a whole-of-government issue. The Minister, Deputy Browne, recently published, with me, the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, a new national housing plan that involves every part of the State, realising everybody has a role to play in the housing emergency, including our local authorities and State agencies. On this specific project, I am not familiar with it but I will speak to the Minister-----

I will speak to the Minister because we all want to see more supply and I will ask him to revert to the Deputy directly.

I thank the Deputy for highlighting that. Ultimately, State agencies must always remember that they are agencies of the State. The people in this building and those in local authority chambers are the democratically elected representatives of that State. I am sorry to hear the Deputy is highlighting a real issue in terms of a lack of engagement on this. I will certainly take this back and discuss it with the Minister for Transport more broadly and I will ask him to revert to the Deputy.

I will not give any undertaking until I get on top of the facts of it. I will certainly get on top of the facts now and will revert to the Deputy on the issue. I can only imagine the frustration of those An Post pensioners. Allow me to seek the latest update and I will revert to the Deputy on it in writing.

I thank Deputy Lawlor for highlighting this issue. Anecdotally, I have come across this as well. We are asking people who have accrued significant experience and expertise to come back and help out with a specific project, maybe when there are particular times of pressure, such as during Covid and many other occasions. Often, it can be quite a challenge to get people to come back, not necessarily because they do not want to, but because of that interplay in relation to their pensions and pension abatement. It is a …

I thank the Deputy for his constructive contribution and the idea of an accelerator project for the IFSC. If the Deputy sends me on the details of it, I will be very happy to engage with him on it. I suggest that my colleague in the Department of Finance, the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, who has responsibility for international services, and I could have a discussion in relation to that. I would be happy to facilitate that. IFAC has a really important role today. Groupthink brought us to a moment of economic rui…

As is often the case, Deputy Burke is correct on this. There is a real blockage here, which is that it cannot all be left to the market. I meet people in my constituency and around the country, often young professional people, who they want to open a childcare facility. They are well up for it, ready and qualified but they gave to face upfront costs, startup costs, rents and capital costs. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Foley, to specifically consider the Deputy's comments in the context of the new action plan on …

I try to stop myself doing it as well, because I can stand here and point to there being X number of more places. That might be true, but it is also only a cause of frustration for a parent who does not have a place. I take that point, which is a fair one. In relation to the three specific cases the Deputy raised, I will notify the Minister for education and the NCSE of her intention to follow up on those. On the broader point in relation to the capacity in Kildare South, I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Mo…

I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this matter. These are always sensitive and important issues to try to get right. I know local councillors try to grapple with what the right approach is on this. I note that different parties, including some Opposition parties, have voted in different ways on this on different councils. I think the lead Opposition party voted one way on South Dublin County Council and voted a different way on Dublin City Council. I am not sure what the policy difference was in terms of why it vote…