Dáil debates

Thursday, 26 January 2023

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation

 

12:44 pm

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Since June, the ECB has increased its interest rates by 2.5%. The Governor of the Central Bank came before the Committee on Finance yesterday and made clear to me and others that he expects rates to increase by another 1% by March. The process will begin next week. That rate hike will immediately affect 300,000 people who are on tracker mortgages. It will mean having to pay thousands of euro more in interest this year.

It also affects more than 100,000 families who have had their mortgages sold to vulture funds. There was a commitment from the Government that they would not be any worse off but they are far worse off. Many of these individuals are already paying a 7% interest rate in the light of recent hikes. By March, they will be paying 8%. The Minister must understand the issue. We have seen the detail. For some of the affected families, it will mean an increase of €5,000 in interest payments compared with the amount they were paying in June last year. That will be a breaking point for those families. What can the Government do? Is it not now time for the Government to reintroduce tailored, targeted and time-bound mortgage interest relief to relieve some of the pressures on these families?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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A whole range of reliefs are available. There are reliefs available for the rental sector, which the Deputy would acknowledge is an area in need of real support. Returning to a point I made earlier to Deputy Tóibín, the Central Bank has the key regulatory role. It does not set the interest rates on commercial operators, but when it comes to the commercial decisions, it does have a role about how to protect the most vulnerable customers and how to deal with those facing particular difficulty. We have learned over the years that the relationship between the mortgage holder and the relevant company is critical. In that respect, the Central Bank has a key role to play.

Mortgage interest relief is a matter for the budget. There were calls for a budget every month during the crisis last year. I do not think that was the right approach. The right approach for us is to engage in the budgetary process, which, as the Deputy knows, runs from April to October. It is not as if the budget is done in one day. There is an initial statement for the European Commission and the summer economic statement. Decisions about mortgage and tax supports-----

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Those bills are landing now.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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-----are best made as part of the budgetary process.

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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People cannot wait until October.

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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We all appreciate the immense work done by the staff in the community and voluntary sector in caring for so many across society as they support people in homelessness and addiction, and in staffing refuges and rape crisis centres. Yet, such workers are paid much less than equivalent staff employed directly by the State, despite many of them propping up many State services. In October last year, we in the Labour Party brought forward a motion which would have delivered pay parity for these vulnerable workers in the community and voluntary sector. We have seen no action from the Government since then, despite the fact the Government waved that motion through. The national executive of the Fórsa trade union is now backing a proposal for strike action in a number of community and voluntary sector agencies. If it goes ahead, that strike action will affect many staff and, crucially, the many people for whom those staff are caring and providing invaluable supports. The last thing any of these workers want is to take to the picket line. Will the Government face up to its responsibility and give workers in the community and voluntary sector the pay rise they deserve?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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We need to pay people properly, but as I said a moment ago, we need the income stream to support that. There is a lot of understanding and sympathy within the Government for the case the Deputy is making because workers in section 39 organisations are doing very important caring and other valuable work for the State. They are not directly employed by the State, but that should not absolve us or the State from looking to address disparities where they exist. It is a complicated issue. Trade unions and others are involved in the resolution. I understand the Department of Health has the key role in terms of working with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to try to resolve what in my mind is an anomaly that needs to be resolved, in that certain categories of workers are not being treated the same as those doing similar work. The issue will not be easily or immediately resolved but I would like to see the issue resolved.

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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Coillte and the issue of forestry are rightly the topics of this week. I have received hundreds of emails from constituents on the issue. A protest about the issue is happening outside the gates of Leinster House now. The Minister and his Government have been caught out by the public in allowing a deal to go ahead that they should never have entertained. I am also sure everyone concerned about the Coillte deal will be equally as exercised when they read in today's Irish Examinera piece by Paul Hosford about the EU's scathing criticism of the national forestry strategy that was designed by the Minister's party colleague, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. The letter from the EU criticises the inappropriate afforestation on sensitive habitats, the planting on peatlands, the impact on bird species, such as the curlew, which will be extinct within ten years, and the planting and river catchments critical to pearl mussels. These forestry and biodiversity failures have occurred on the Minister's watch. How can he and the Green Party, which has never been as well represented in government, stand over this?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I have not yet had a chance to read the article in the Irish Examiner. I am, however, certain that if one party has clearly and explicitly said that we planted in the wrong places on peatland soils, it is the Green Party.

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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The Minister needs to read the letter from the EU.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Green Party has made that point in government and in opposition. What we said when we were in opposition-----

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The Green Party said a lot of things in opposition.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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-----was that we would change the forestry programme so that it would promote a variety of different-----

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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The Government and the EU are completely at odds on this matter.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We cannot have a two-way conversation.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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-----forestry approaches. The previous approach, which included monocultural clear-felling on upland peat soils, must come to an end. It is coming to an end. I am sure the EU would agree with that point and so do we.

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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The EU agrees but says that is not happening.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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It is happening. We have introduced a new forestry programme that switches the approach. The land use review will copper-fasten that approach.

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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I send solidarity to the workers at the Corrib Oil filling station in Ballinasloe who area due to strike this Saturday, having been on strike on 22 December. The workers have been driven to strike because of the refusal of their employer to recognise their union of choice, namely, Mandate. Because of the so-called voluntarist model of industrial relations here, there is no legal mechanism to force the employer to engage with the union except by the workers exercising their right to strike. It is an important strike for that reason. If the strike is successful, it will make it easier for every Corrib Oil and H2 Group outlet to have a union contract, leading to better terms and conditions, paid-for training, realistic pay scales and a better environment for everyone. I encourage the workers at the other 20 Corrib Oil outlets and the other 14 H2 Group outlets to join the union. Does the Minister agree that the employer should recognise the union?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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This country works on a partnership basis. I mentioned Government earlier. The Government listens through the National Economic and Social Council and the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, where we meet both employers and unions. One of the most positive and progressive developments in the past year has been the willingness of employers and unions to advance and improve the recognition of trade unions within the system in our country. The mechanisms to facilitate that are not perfect and may not meet every particular circumstance - I do not have the details of the dispute in the particular filling station to which the Deputy referred - but there have been advances in the recognition of trade unions in the past year through that partnership approach. That is what we will deliver on.

Photo of Verona MurphyVerona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The neurorehabilitation strategy implementation framework was launched in February 2019. The overarching aim of the strategy is the development of neurorehabilitation services to improve patient outcomes by providing safe, high-quality, person-centred neurorehabilitation. People in Wexford who are living with stroke injury, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, Huntington's disease, epilepsy and many other neurological conditions are living with wholly inadequate services in their areas. They have a basic right to those services. Their call for a neurorehabilitation team for community healthcare organisation 5, CHO 5, is supported by 22 neurological charities. The establishment of such a team in CHO 5 will support hundreds and thousands of people to live independently. I implore the Government to set up such a team.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I understand the Deputy's motivation and the importance of the matter she has raised. I do not have the details on the appropriate delivery of such a service.

I will ask the Minister's officials to make sure the Department of Health responds as quickly as possible to the information provided.

12:54 pm

Photo of Richard O'DonoghueRichard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Today I again raise the issue of University Hospital Limerick, UHL, and ask for the resignation of all the management there. We always say to trust our health professionals. I hold a letter from our health professionals - 87 of them, doctors and professors - about the overcrowding in UHL. The letter states there has been extreme crowding and relentless demand on services for the past ten years, especially in UHL. We have to get an investigation into the management. We now have 87 doctors and professors - our health professionals; those who we said we should trust - who have come out as well as 11,000 who turned out in Limerick and throughout the country last week. When will this Government listen to us? I am at it for the past two and a half years and the Government has ignored the issue and brushed it under the carpet. It stops now. We want action from Government now. Our 87 health professionals, 11,000 people as well as healthcare staff asked for the Government's help. Limerick Deputies, including Deputy O'Donnell, should stand up and help.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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We are all concerned about the situation that has evolved. It has been there for some time but was particularly acute in the first weeks of January this year.

Photo of Richard O'DonoghueRichard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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They said ten years.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Please.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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That concern over a period of time is why there has been an additional 1,161 staff in University Hospital Limerick in the past three or four years. One thing I am glad of is that, in that two-week period since that first crisis, the numbers, as I understand, have come right down. That should not-----

Photo of Richard O'DonoghueRichard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Will the Government reopen Nenagh?

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Please.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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That should not make us complacent. We need the additional beds and resources. We need to support the management of emergency departments so that we do not have that bottleneck-----

Photo of Richard O'DonoghueRichard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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I asked for that to be done two and a half years ago and the Government did not do it. Now 87 health professionals have asked for it.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Harkin, please.

Photo of Marian HarkinMarian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I want to raise some concerns about accommodation for Ukrainian refugees. One constituent is owed more than €400,000 since last October for accommodation he has provided. Unless he is paid, he will have to withdraw that accommodation. Nobody wants that. What is the delay?

The second issue is the need for good, timely communication with local communities about the location of refugee accommodation. Lack of clear information allows rumours to spread. The damage is done and is impossible to repair.

One constituent gave a house to a Ukrainian family before there was any money involved. That family subsequently returned to Ukraine. Since the end of last September, that family has been trying to get another Ukrainian family into that house but the family is being bounced from one agency to another, be it the local authority, Red Cross, or the International Organisation for Migration, IOM. Generous, decent people are beginning to lose patience. I want to ask for a more timely response.

Photo of Roderic O'GormanRoderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Deputy knows, the State is accommodating 54,000 Ukrainians right now. Of those, 46,000 are in hotels and guesthouses. That is more than 700 individual contracts. I recognise that in the latter half of last year a backlog grew in regard to prompt payment. We put in additional resources to address that. We shrunk the backlog. We did not entirely clear it. We will work with the Deputy in regard to the particular provider of whom she spoke.

I take on board the point on communication. It is important. When we are opening new accommodation we try to let Deputies and local authority members know. We are looking to build a unit in my Department that will be designed around that in order that we can do that on a more proactive basis. Obviously, where there are bad faith actors, and there are some bad faith actors in this, sometimes we are responding to rumours that have absolutely no truth whatsoever.

In regard to the house, is that a shared house?

Photo of Marian HarkinMarian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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No, it is an individual house on its own.

Photo of Roderic O'GormanRoderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I would advise them to contact the local authority. The local authorities are now doing the vacant homes call. That is the route they should take.

Photo of Marian HarkinMarian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I will pass that on.

Photo of Pádraig O'SullivanPádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I want to ask again about the issue of private wire and direct line renewables. I asked the question of the Minister before Christmas when it was said that the policy view of his Department would be established by the year's end. I understand this report was initially meant to be reviewed in quarter 1 of 2022. It was delayed due to Covid-19 and that is understandable, but where are we in regard to private wire and direct line renewables? Given the energy restrictions we face into the future, it is imperative we establish that policy position.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The policy decision by Government is clear. We are going to introduce the ability for private lines so that industry will be able to generate its own power and have battery storage and other systems that will allow it to be part of not just meeting our immediate energy security needs, which are very real, but also the need for decarbonisation. I will have to come back to the Deputy on the exact date on which the rules will be changed. However, we are committed to moving in that direction.

One thing that might give some encouragement in the interim is that last year was a record year for the deployment of renewable power in our country, in both solar and wind energy. I was also informed yesterday when I was working on this that, in regard to battery storage, which we have only started but which has taken off close to the power stations at present and which also has huge potential close to industry as part of that balance in capability, we have the highest per capitavolume of battery storage of any country. In both renewables and on battery storage, we are progressing. Private wires and the role of industry will be expanded.

Photo of David StantonDavid Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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One of the biggest and best resourced IDA sites in the country, in Ballyadam in east Cork, has been locked up for the past 15 years. Provision of thousands of houses in Midleton is at risk because of the very busy and totally inadequate N25 between Carrigtwohill and Midleton. When will the Minister give the go-ahead to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and Cork County Council to carry on the essential work of upgrading this road which was halted and paused in 2021?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I had a meeting with the board of TII earlier this week. I said to it, as I will say to the Deputy, that we have a huge volume of projects. There are projects worth more than €70 billion, and that was before the inflationary period, with a €34 billion national development plan, NDP, pool and a pool where we have committed 10% funding to active travel and 20% funding to public transport. In those circumstances, to my mind the priority has to be the building of a whole range of new bypasses such as Castlemartyr in a similar road area. I could go on throughout the country, such as Listowel, Abbeyfeale, Virginia, Carrick-on-Shannon - the list is as long as your arm. I believe those projects providing bypasses to allow our towns to thrive should get priority over mainline capacity enhancement, which is the case with the road in question. Given the very limited budget we have as well as projects committed to, such as Ringaskiddy, the Dunkettle roundabout, with a limited purse I believe bypasses are the area on which we should focus the money.

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Thanks to one of the Minister, Deputy Ryan's, brainwaves the last time he was in Government, for the past 12 years, without knowing it, ordinary families and households have been subsidising the electricity bills of some of the largest companies in the world. The large energy user, LEU, rebalancing subvention took charges away from big businesses and added them to the bills of domestic users in a scandalous scheme that sums up the Minister's approach to these issues, which is to protect large corporations and penalise ordinary workers and families. Freedom of information documents secured by Senator Lynn Boylan show that even the amount approved was actually surpassed and more was actually passed on to LEU customers. Will the Minister now instruct the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, immediately to evaluate how much additional costs were domestic customers burdened with under this scheme? More importantly, will he make sure it is repaid to hard-pressed families?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The instruction we gave to CRU last April was to reverse that approach, and that has been done. In 2010, if I recall rightly, our economy was at real risk. The price of electricity for industrial providers was historically much higher than other European competing countries. There was a real risk of major job losses at a time when our economy was in real difficulty and in danger. It is this Government, in different circumstances, which has changed that and reversed that decision.

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Will customers be repaid?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I believe it was appropriate at the time when our economy was at risk to make that change. I believe it is appropriate now for us to have directed CRU to reverse it.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Minister. I call Deputy Darren O'Rourke.

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Will the customer be repaid? The Minister will not answer.

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister, in response to my colleague, Deputy Doherty, earlier, said he wants to smash the housing targets. I am not sure whether he has told the Office of the Planning Regulator about that or amended the national planning framework or told a single local authority in the State.

In Meath, we have a track record of delivering houses but there are nowhere near enough. The Meath County Council housing delivery action plan targets are shy by 2,000 out to 2027 and there will be more people going onto the housing list than houses being built. To buy a house in the private market, people are looking at in excess of €485,000 for a three-bedroom property. We are ahead of the game in regard to our county development plan but as soon as it was adopted, it was out of date because it was based on the 2016 census figures and population projections that were grossly underestimated, although they were the basis for the national planning framework, NPF. For example, the town of Dunshaughlin could grow by 6,000 people up to 2027 and there are 8,500 people there already. Will the Minister immediately review the housing targets for County Meath and ensure they are consistent with national, regional and local plans?

1:04 pm

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I go back to what I said to Deputy Doherty, namely, it is about quality and not just quantity, and we need to get balanced and good quality planning and development. I believe the national planning framework is correct in that we need more balanced regional development, more compact development and low carbon development. That means we need to see Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick in particular thrive as counterbalances to the rapid growth of the greater Dublin area. Half of the new housing is going into the greater Dublin area but it will not work for Dubliners or for people in Meath, Wicklow or Louth if everything happens in the east. We need that better balanced regional development. That is not to say we do not develop Meath but it means we do not abandon the national planning framework and the key policy decisions behind it. Yes, we need more housing but we have to make sure it is balanced in terms of being located right across the country and, in particular, those other cities need to grow.

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to raise the contentious issue of the large number of women throughout the country who are involved in custody battles and find themselves forcibly removed from their children, sometimes arrested, sometimes imprisoned, and sometimes this happens to their children likewise. I want to ascertain to what extent efforts can be made to dislodge the use of a pseudo-condition introduced by an American some years ago, which is totally alien to this country and is reminiscent of what happened in prisoner-of-war camps, so this activity of parental alienation can be suspended indefinitely in order to allow a full investigation into what is going on.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Again, I am afraid I am not as knowledgeable as the Deputy on the particular issue. I am uncertain as to whether it is the Minister for Justice or the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth who should take this.

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Both.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I might ask the officials to contact both the Minister for Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to address the points the Deputy raises.

Photo of Martin KennyMartin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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On Tuesday, Christine Kenny, who is the aunt of Amy Fitzpatrick, who disappeared on New Year's Day 2008, was at the gates of Leinster House and handed in letters to both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, and many other Deputies met her that morning. She is campaigning for the Government to intervene in this case. It is now 15 years since this young girl disappeared in Spain. She left the house of a friend to go to her own home and it is said that she never arrived there. It was six months previously that the famous case of Madeleine McCann was in the world headlines. There is certainly a sense that the Spanish authorities did not want to bring bad publicity to a very touristy part of the world and to the commercial interests there, and the case was not dealt with as appropriately as it should have been at the time. Since then, new information has come to light and, in recent days, there has been a lot of media coverage in Spain and reports that somebody has come forward to say that, unfortunately, they know where Amy's body may be buried, and they are speaking around that. The pressure needs to be put on the Spanish authorities to deal with this issue. I call on the Government to really put on the pressure to ensure the Spanish authorities act to find Amy's body and bring her home to her family.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I know the heartbreak would not diminish despite the time that has lapsed. If, as the Deputy suggests, there is new evidence that might lead to resolving the family's anguish in this regard, I am certain that the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and his Department would make representations. As I said, they will have to make the most appropriate assessment of that.

Photo of Jennifer Murnane O'ConnorJennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister will have to come back to me with an answer on this issue, which concerns disability. I know of a disability service in Carlow that was promised funding in November and it still has not received it this week. As the money to pay staff is going to run out shortly, funding is imperative and we need to find out where that funding is. I also ask the Minister to check where is the €100 million that was announced in budget 2023 to support community-based service providers in the provision of health services across the country. I know of a care home that is waiting on this money. I understand there are a number of issues with the HSE that it has to address with the Department. The CHO is telling me that it has not been allocated the money, the service is telling me it has not received any word and the Department is telling me at all times that the money is coming, but it is not. We need to make sure that the funding is there for the services. I am hearing all of the time that it is about recruitment and that we need more recruitment. We have to both look after the services that are there and recruit.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As the Deputy suggests, I will have to ask the officials to ask the Department to come back on the specific issue of where the funding for that centre is.

Photo of Paul McAuliffePaul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I have Deputy O'Connor to my left and Deputy Murnane O'Connor to my right, both of whom have raised the issue of the national car test, NCT, waiting list times. I continue, even this week, to get queries from people who are not able to secure NCT appointments and who have even had to wait months for the cancellation list. I have particular concern for the older people who come into my clinics. They want to be able to follow the rules and they are afraid to drive without an NCT, so they worry about that cliff edge coming at them. What are we doing to hold the operator to account and to ensure it is complying with its contractual obligations, which it agreed with the State?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I was talking to the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, about this as he has responsibility in the area. We both agreed that the current situation is totally unsatisfactory and that the agencies, such as the Road Safety Authority, and all of the operations of the State need to make sure it is resolved. The operator has committed that, by the end of May, there will be a return to the 12-day service level agreement target. A whole range of new staff are being brought in and there are very complex arrangements to make sure we deliver that, but the urgency is clear. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, is determined to deliver on that promise.

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As we know, in this city and across the country, 90% of vehicles sit idle in driveways and when they are used, over 90% are used for single-passenger journeys. What are the Minister's plans for the new unit to promote sharing platforms? I know Deputy McAuliffe has a keen interest in this. It is a real opportunity for us to transform the way travel is thought of by people, if we can get the work of this unit moving very swiftly. I would like to hear the Minister's plans.

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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We launched our recharging station strategy with Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland, ZEVI, last week. A critical element of that is new mobility car sharing centres. The reason Deputy McAuliffe is interested is because we have already introduced one in Finglas village, and it provides a model that we need to roll out across our cities in particular and across the country. It is the council providing the land and it is working with the ESB on the grid connection. It is both a charging and a car sharing station for a variety of different car sharing companies, and it also has e-bike charging and e-bike sharing. To my mind, it has huge potential because the benefit is that, as the Deputy said, most cars are parked 95% of the time, so there is a huge economic saving, huge energy efficiency and huge import reduction in terms of the balance of payments, and it provides a very high-quality service. The Government will provide funding for the roll-out of those mobility hubs across our cities as the big boost to car sharing.

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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My question relates to the sodium valproate inquiry. The Minister knows it is more than two years since that was promised by the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, in the House. The officials from the Department have told Organisation Anticonvulsant Syndromes Ireland, or OACS Ireland, and Epilepsy Ireland that the draft terms of reference for this inquiry were to go to Cabinet before Christmas. Families have been ignored by their own Government for more than 50 years and it is absolutely beyond time that this was brought to Cabinet. Can the Minister tell me when it is going to be brought to Cabinet and the inquiry started?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Again, I will have to refer to the Department of Health and the Minister and ask them to respond on what the timeline is.

Photo of James O'ConnorJames O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the upgrade of the N25 at Castlemartyr and Killeagh, I understand the documents, thankfully, have now gone to the Department of Transport for “gate zero” approval under the planning frameworks within the Department. Is it possible that this is looked into and that it is done immediately, and that funding is immediately issued for the appointment of a design consultant, which is required in order that locals can see what the proposed routes will be over the course of this coming year?

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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In response to an earlier question, I mentioned the Castlemartyr bypass as a specific example of the type of project we want to accelerate. The consequences for villages and towns across the country where there is that volume of through traffic are very disruptive, and that stops what we are doing on the other side, with Croí Cónaithe and other projects, where we want to get families back in the centre of villages and towns. Taking the through traffic out liberates these towns. Castlemartyr is on the list of projects that I have asked Transport Infrastructure Ireland to try to progress as fast as possible.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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That concludes Questions on Policy or Legislation. As the Deputy with a Private Member's Bill for introduction is not present, the House will suspend for 40 minutes.

Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ar 1.11 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 1.52 p.m.

Sitting suspended at 1.11 p.m. and resumed at 1.52 p.m.