Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their questions. As Deputy Dillon mentioned earlier, Cabinet today signed off on the tender and gave approval for the N5 Scramogue to Ballaghaderreen road project to go ahead. It is an investment of about €450 million and will dramatically improve access to and from County Mayo in particular. It will also have huge benefits for towns like Strokestown, Frenchpark and Tulsk in Roscommon, where the through traffic will be taken out, making those towns nicer places in which to live and visit. It is a huge investment in the west of Ireland and probably the biggest single transport project that will be approved this year by the Government. It comes on top of some other big transport investments in the west and the south west. I had the pleasure earlier in the year to open to Westport to Castlebar road and I look forward to opening the Macroom to Ballyvourney bypass later in the year. For people who say that we are not investing in roads or in the west and south west, this is the answer. There are very evident road projects opening and starting, and that pipeline continues.

I agree with Deputy Dillon's call for ongoing and increased investment in roads and rail and also in our regional airports. The challenge for the Government is that there are limitations other than limitations around the planning process, which can take some time and is not always successful. There are budgetary limitations, and increasingly we are constrained less by budgets and more by the availability of skilled people, ranging from engineers and architects to quantity surveyors and construction workers. We have to programme these things out in a way that is deliverable. We also need to appreciate that increasing budgets every year does not always mean that one gets more. Sometimes it just drives inflation, and one ends up paying more for the same. We are seeing a big issue around construction inflation at the moment.

Deputy O'Callaghan raised the issue of access to Clongriffin DART Station for people with restricted mobilities. I was not aware of that as an issue. I know some very new stations like Pelletstown Station in Dublin 7, which is in a new part of my constituency, cost a lot to build but they are very accessible. It was worth it, in many ways, because people can access it in a way they cannot access the older stations. I will certainly make inquiries with Irish Rail and see if it has a plan, or at least if it can have a plan, to improve access to that particular station. It is a relatively new one, so I am disappointed to hear that it was not built in such a way as to accommodate people with restricted mobilities.

Deputy Barry raised the question of the 15 nurses employed by SouthDoc. If I picked it up correctly, he said that the pandemic bonus, the €1,000, was already approved by the HSE. To the best of my knowledge SouthDoc, like the other doctor on call services, receives a mix of public funding and also private fees. I do not know exactly what the balance is there but I definitely think it should be sorted out and should be paid. I will make the Minister for Health aware that it was raised here, and perhaps something can be done to resolve.

On the section 39 bodies and pay parity, we debated this earlier in the Dáil. There is an offer on the table, which is a 5% pay increase in November, 3% backdated for several months and a commitment to further engagement, as was done in the past. What used to happen in the past is there would be a public sector pay deal and then a few months later there would be engagement on how that might apply to section 39 bodies. We would like to get back to that but unfortunately that offer has not been accepted. Perhaps that can change, as it is certainly still on the table.

I will go back to Deputy Boyd Barrett's questions on the film and audiovisual sector. I know some people who work in it. I know that one cannot produce this content or these great films and programmes, which we are very proud of and showcase our country very well, without the people who act in them, write them, and who do everything around the protection line, from riggers to cameramen to sound engineers and all of the people who are essential in this cultural industry. I do not know enough about the payment model but I know that sometimes it is a fee and royalties. Other times, it is a higher fee with no royalties. There should be a choice. I am not sure we can legislate for that but there should be a choice between a fee with royalties, or a higher fee if one forgoes the royalties. The idea of a stakeholder forum is a very good one and I will make sure that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Gaeltacht, Arts, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, is aware of that. What might work for the sector - I am only saying it might work - is some sort of employment regulation order or sectoral employment order. We have them in other areas like construction, childcare and security, and that at least means a minimum set of terms of conditions and rules that govern the area. Perhaps that might be a way forward.

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