Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ryan. I make the point that just last week an additional €67 million was announced which included the extension of hot meals to children attending DEIS schools. This was a really important initiative that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, brought forward. This also included the abolition of school transport fares and the improvement in the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. We recognise there are extra costs at this time of year and we took the view that because this is when these costs are being incurred, we would have to address these outside of the normal budgetary calendar. Those moves have been broadly welcomed.

On transport fares, we should not understate the importance of the 50% reduction on fares for young people and the 20% reduction across the population generally on public transport services. The continuation of that or any further measures and all of those issues have to be considered as part of the Estimates process. There will be a lot of different priorities competing for resources and we will have to work our way through that as best we can.

Progress is being made on the payment of the pandemic recognition payment. We would all have liked it to have happened more quickly. For those who are directly employed by the HSE, I think the vast majority have now received the payment. For those who are not directly employed such as staff in hospices, private nursing homes and members of the Defence Forces, there is further work to be done. The Department of Health is working its way through that currently.

Regarding waiting lists, we have an initiative to the value of approximately €250 million because waiting lists have grown unfortunately. The pandemic had a real impact. It is a Government priority now to address that. People are waiting too long and we are going to do all we can to make a lot of progress in that area.