What steps is the Minister taking to ensure there are appropriate youth travel public transport fares available for 16- to 18-year-olds across all public transport modes in Ireland? I note a significant reduction for under-24s was introduced and I want to ensure that goes to all youths in the country.

The Minister said quite clearly that when someone forms the habit at a young age of using public transport, it will extend into later life. The introduction of the fare reductions recently has not been well publicised but it is a significant decrease in public transport fares of 20% for everybody, but a 50% reduction for under-24s seems to have gone under the radar a bit. We need to publicise it and get people back on to public transport because of the emissions and congestion associated with transport. However, ad…

The importance of the Leap card cannot be underestimated. It is a simple and easy process to pick one up. We must, however, also explore more integrated ticketing. I note there are also plans to enable people to pay for their tickets with a credit card, and that makes perfect sense. In some cases, though, anomalies exist in fares across the rail network. It may possibly be the case with the bus network as well, but I am more familiar with the rail network. I recently investigated one such anomaly where people in Gr…

I want to ask the steps the Minister is taking to decarbonise last-mile deliveries in town and city centres and in particular to use smaller and lighter vehicles including e-cargo bikes and trikes, and if he can make a statement on the matter.

I welcome that. The Minister of State has identified that there is a ten-year strategy and that it will incorporate parts of the last-mile delivery concept. I will quote some figures from the World Economic Forum, which refers to the increase in online shopping and the demand for e-commerce. The forum estimates that the increase will result in 36% more delivery vehicles in inner cities by 2030 and that, as a consequence, emissions from delivery traffic will increase by 32% and congestion will rise by over 21%. The …

I thank the Minister of State. She is quite right to point out the good work being done by An Post. Any Deputy who sits on the north side of Leinster House 2000 building will note that a courier company operates there. A 40-foot truck arrives on one of the evenings in the week and all the parcels and packages in it are decanted into smaller vehicles, including e-bikes and e-trikes, like An Post vehicles. This shows that there is willingness to do what I propose. It also makes economic sense. Economic sense underlin…

On 15 February, the Taoiseach indicated to the House that the planning regulations for solar panels would be ready in two to three weeks. That is nearly six weeks ago now and I have seen no movement on it. I do not need to remind the Taoiseach that we are in an energy crisis, that we have introduced one of the most ambitious energy retrofit schemes seen anywhere in Europe and that we have agreed the feed-in tariff scheme. What we need now are the planning exemptions on solar panels. We have potentially up to 2 GW o…

I want to ask about Wicklow town courthouse, which is currently out of use. It really does need attention and to have remedial work done to it. It is detracting from the town centre, where there has been a lot of investment. Is the Minister of State aware of the work that is needed there and can he update us on what the long-term plans are for the currently unused Wicklow town courthouse?

That is quite positive news and I am glad to hear it. I do not know if the Minister or the Minister of State is familiar with Wicklow town but there is a beautiful market square which has seen significant investment under the town and village renewal scheme and the rural regeneration scheme. The Ministers, Deputies Humphreys and Darragh O'Brien, were there during last summer. There is just this one southern aspect of the square which really lets it down and, unfortunately, that is the courthouse. We had a look at i…

I thank the Minister of State. I will take that up with the OPW. This issue is incredibly important, in particular when we have dereliction and vacant buildings in our towns. To be fair, the Government has produced some really good policy documents in Our Rural Future and Town Centre First, and in many of the aspects of Housing for All. When it is the State that is the owner of the building, I am of the view that we have an extra responsibility to ensure it does not detract visually from the town and that it does n…

The Minister will be aware that in 2021 the European Commission adopted the European Union child guarantee. The guarantee aims to prevent and combat child poverty and social exclusion in the EU by supporting the 27 member states to make efforts to guarantee access to quality key services for children in need. How does the Minister intend to implement the European child guarantee? What is the timeline for its implementation?

I know from conversations I have had with the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, that they fully understand the implications of this for children of early ages. I refer to issues such as difficulty in education or homelessness which can have lifelong implications. There is also the pressures on families. I refer to the work we on the housing committee do on homelessness. Our recent work in supporting local authorities to produce more housing, including cost-rental and affordable housing, will h…

I thank the Minister. I welcome that the national action plan will be produced shortly. It is my understanding the Minister will then send it to the EU for it to overlook the plan. Obviously, the Minister is fully aware of the implications of Ukrainian residents coming to live in Ireland. There will be many children involved in that so I am delighted to see the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, both working on this and on the Ukrainian situation.

That is absolutely fine, a Chathaoirligh. I followed the Minister’s extensive engagements across the St. Patrick’s week visits with interest and it seemed a very packed schedule. Can the Minister outline the work that he carried out on behalf of the State and the benefits and experience gained for both himself and the State from such a visit?

As we are very short on time to go into this in detail, I believe that 38 meetings over a short period of time is quite an extensive number of engagements. The House in general would benefit from reports and updates back from all Ministers who go on these visits as we will all gain from the experience that he received overseas.

The energy retrofit scheme, which was announced last week, has been broadly welcomed by almost everybody across the country. It is a huge Government investment and a long-term plan over the next decade for how we will retrofit our housing stock. Could the Minister outline to the House how he will attempt to encourage or incentivise those who are involved in the energy retrofitting scheme to participate in it, so that we can meet our capacity demand?

I agree with the Minister. My phone has been ringing off the hook since it was announced. That is really positive. I know of people in the trades who want to get involved in it. It sends a really clear signal for the next decade that this is a line of work that they can go into. My colleague Deputy Ó Cathasaigh visited the site of excellence in Waterford. He was impressed with it. The message to existing tradespeople is that a couple of days of training are needed in order to perfect their skill, so that we can adv…

I welcome this Government policy and acknowledge the work that both the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, have put into this policy to deliver it, and to do so quickly. I also acknowledge the role of my Green Party colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, in this. In all the years I have known the Minister of State in his work as a councillor in Kilkenny, he has always pushed this town centre first ideal, based on the Scottish town centre first policy. He worked hard durin…

I want to ask the Minister if her attention has been drawn to recent media reports of sex for rent cases. I refer particularly to reports by a journalist in the Irish Examiner , Ann Murphy. Are there specific measures or legislation to address this crime, if it is a crime? I am not sure if it is and seek the Minister's clarification. Is she considering measures to address the matter?

I thank the Minister. She covered the issue well. It is morally reprehensible for someone to engage in this type of practice, to exploit somebody. We are all aware of the cost of rent out there. We are aware of the pressures on people from rent. For someone to take advantage of that and try to exploit somebody - we need to take urgent action on this. I do not know how prevalent this is but that it can exist at all is something we need to address. The Minister will be aware that this came to me as a housing matter i…