Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Parents of children with special needs face a constant battle with the State to get their children the education services to which they are entitled. As we speak, many parents are once again beginning their annual fight to secure appropriate school places for their children from September. This pressure is exacerbated every year as they also struggle to secure summer provision places for their children. A survey published today by Family Carers Ireland reveals that 72% of carers have never received respite. Many of these same families will also go without the support of July provision. The stress, the exhaustion, the sense of abandonment for these families is very real.

Some children like Jack McNiffe from Kildare have gone years without summer provision. Jack has Down's syndrome, a rare auto-inflammatory disease and severe intellectual disability. He is non-verbal, a wheelchair user and requires 24-hour nursing care. He needs to have a nurse on stand-by. Jack was in hospital last summer and was cocooning during Covid due to his vulnerability. This means that the last time Jack had July provision was in 2019. He is going to miss out again this summer due to a lack of resources. Jack is not alone. We have parents contacting us every day, stressed and their wits' end, because they cannot secure a summer place. They fear that their child's progress will be hampered, that they could become withdrawn, lonely and distressed due to a lack of routine. They have described the huge strain placed on the child, on themselves and on the entire family.

Summer provision is critical in the context of providing children with complex educational needs with the support they need to progress. It provides the socialisation, routine and stimulation that are so important to ensure that these children can move forward. Many children like Jack require round-the-clock care, and parents are exhausted. The respite that summer provision should provide is very important, and it is devastating when parents cannot access the programme.

The Government's approach is at the heart of the problem. Schools struggle to deliver summer programmes for many reasons, including that special needs assistants, SNAs, are not paid fairly and that the Government issues guidelines very late every year, which makes it difficult for schools to plan. The Government has decided to cut the capitation payment for summer provision from €45 to just €30 per week. This will completely undermine the quality and the type of activities that can be offered to children, placing incredible pressure on the capacity of schools to deliver what these children need and contributing to an alarming shortage of school-based programmes for so many children. Is fadhb bhliantúil í áiteanna soláthar samhraidh a fháil. Cruthaíonn sé seo strus mór do thuismitheoirí a bhfuil riachtanais speisialta oideachais á lorg ag a gcuid páistí. Caithfidh an Rialtas réitigh a thabhairt chun cinn.

Children with special educational needs and their parents need real solutions and urgent action to expand the delivery of school-based summer provision programmes. The first step must be to reverse the cut to the summer provision capitation payment. I ask the Taoiseach to do that today as a matter of urgency.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy McDonald for raising this important issue. It is important because parents of children with special educational needs do rely on the summer provision. It provides excellent support to children during the summer period. It The programme also provides excellent support to families. I assure parents who are watching in today that I intend to prioritise special educational needs every day that I am Taoiseach. This was why, on becoming Taoiseach, I established a new Cabinet sub-committee on disability, which I chair. It is why I also elevated the Cabinet voice for special educational needs by appointing the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, to sit at the Cabinet table. It is why we have provided €12 million more in recent weeks for assessments of need. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has special responsibility for this area.

Let me be very clear about this matter. The Deputy should not come into this House and create anxiety for parents. There has been no cut to the summer school programme. The budget this year is the same as that for last year. What there has been, however, is the deployment of that budget based on the feedback we have heard from those who use the programmes. What we have heard from them, and the Deputy is correct about this point, is that access to the programme was the biggest challenge. I am sure the Deputy will welcome the fact that we have seen more schools apply this year than applied last year. The number in that regard rose to 1,700 from 1,400. Again, parents have enough going on without being made into political footballs. Those watching these proceedings need to know that already this year we have seen 300 more schools than last year put up their hands and say that they want to provide the summer school programme. Let us not add to the anxiety that these parents already face.

What we are doing - we also did this last year - is ensuring that we continue to pay a higher personal rate of pay to SNAs and teachers working on the school-based scheme. The capitation rate for the special needs schools attended by those children with the most complex needs is €60, not €30. The €30 rate of capitation is being supplemented by means of a range of new measures, which the Deputy may or may not be aware of, that were not in place last year. For example, we now have a dedicated national co-ordinator for the programme. We have provided additional grant funding to special schools. We have reduced the length of the school day. From September, we will provide that every special needs school in Ireland will have an administrative deputy principal. There will be 100 new post-primary teaching posts across our special schools and a new nursing pilot programme to support children is being put in place. New programmes have also been introduced to support the transition of children with special educational needs after school.

The Deputy should rest assured that the budget for the summer school programme overall remains the same. The number of schools looking to take part is growing and is up 300 on last year. I can tell the Deputy that I know a great deal about the summer school programme. I know how important it is to families. My family benefited from this programme. It is an incredible programme. It is one in respect of which we will continue to provide every support we possibly can. I do not need the Deputy to "Mary-Lou-splain" this issue to me. The Government supports the programme and will continue to do so. We should not be making a political football out of this issue.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I described Jack's position and situation to the Taoiseach. His mother wrote to The Irish Times in May outlining the position, which has not changed since then. He cannot access summer provision. Far from making a political football of anything, this mother and family are appealing for change and for urgent action in order that Jack can access the support and service he needs in the course of the summer. The capitation grant has been cut from €45 to €30. Schools, SNAs and everybody who wishes to provide this wonderful service to Jack, and to all the other Jacks, are reporting to us directly the type of stress and strain I have described to the Taoiseach. I have made a proposal in terms of reversing that cut. More specifically, in respect of Jack, did the Taoiseach respond? His mum has made his case very publicly because she is desperate.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I invite the Taoiseach to respond directly to her and, by extension, to Jack.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy very much.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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What I invite the Deputy to do is to not mislead people.

What the Deputy has conveniently suggested is that the change in the capitation rate has resulted in a reduction in service, when, actually, more schools are providing it this year than last year. The number in that regard is up to 1,700 from 1,400. Those are additional schools - we can all do the maths. The reality of the situation is that for Jack and for every other child, this Government is ensuring that more schools will be taking part in summer provision this year than last year. This Government is also investing in more supports, specifically for special schools-----

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Is it a cut or not a cut?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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-----because those are the schools attended by the children with the most complex needs. They rely on the provision of the service.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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There has been a cut in the grant.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy should not come in here with her one setting of performative outrage. Let us actually engage on the substance of the issue, namely the fact that more schools are availing of the programme and that a Minister of State with responsibility for special educational needs is, for the first time ever, sitting at the Cabinet table.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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It is the second one.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We also have a Cabinet sub-committee to break down silos and end bureaucracy. That is what people want. They do not just wan us to define the problems; they want us to come up with solutions.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Such arrogance.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I would have thought Deputy McDonald had learnt that this weekend.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputies should please not interrupt. I call Deputy Cairns.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thought Deputy McDonald would be trying humility today.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Hubris and arrogance.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Can we stop the heckling please? Can we hear Deputy Holly Cairns, without interruption?

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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Counts are still taking place, so the elections are not quite over. One thing that was made clear to me on the doors is that people out there are not interested in the Punch and Judy show that often takes place in this House.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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They are not interested in petty, political one-upmanship or politics that values sound bites over substance.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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The people who voted for candidates who they met at their doors and who they put their trust in want representatives who will work hard, who are clear in what they can deliver and who can offer credible solutions to the many problems we face. We all know what those problems are, namely the housing disaster, the healthcare crisis, the climate emergency and threadbare disability services.

The findings contained in the new report published today by Family Carers Ireland are shocking, but they should not be a surprise to any of us. Nearly two thirds of carers have never received any respite. A similar number say they struggle to make ends meet. Their loved ones do not receive any formal support. Nearly 50% have had to pay privately for products or services that should be publicly available to them. Nearly one in four has missed a mortgage or rent payment in the past year.

The report outlines a litany of failure when it comes to State services and State reports. The problem is not even that there is no support out there - although that is increasingly the case for many families - it is that the State often seems to erect barriers to deny people what little support does exist. People are faced with qualifying criteria for supports are almost impossible to meet, time-consuming and complicated application forms that they do not have the time and energy to fill out and an attitude of ambivalence and apathy on the part of State institutions that chips away at people's morale and self-belief.

The Taoiseach has repeatedly promised to support carers. People do not buy it, however, because they have heard it all before - the same promises and the same commitments that bear no relationship to the reality experienced by carers. That reality is what is reflected in today's report. I refer here to the daily financial struggle, the anger at the lack of services, the constant anxiety about the absence of supports and the dread about what will happen to loved ones when the carer is no longer around.

There is no bigger gap between rhetoric and reality than the one that exists when it comes to disability and care. Disabled people and older people have a right to live independent lives that the State refuses to vindicate. The Government repeatedly tells carers how much they are valued and then refuses to value them. It is an indictment of this Government that access to respite, which is already in crisis, is deteriorating.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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Carers and their families were promised a lot. When will the Government actually deliver?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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When will carers have access to at least 20 days respite a year? Will the Government abolish the means test for carer's allowance?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I congratulate Deputy Cairns on the election of the councillors from her party. I wish everybody who was elected well. Lots of people voted for my party as well, and for my coalition party colleagues in Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. Her view of how people view the political situation is not always in line with what the people actually decided to do at the ballot box on Friday. More than 53% of council seats went to councillors from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. The Deputy should be aware of that. Her party did well in the elections, and I congratulate her on that, but the parties on these benches did better, too. When she says people do not buy it, people had a chance to give their views on lots of issues in a very large democratic exercise. Sometimes, the views expressed in this House are not actually the views that are expressed in villages, towns and cities right across this country.

I thank the Deputy for raising a very important issue concerning respite and care. I, along with the relevant Ministers, intend to meet directly with Family Carers Ireland this month. We need to listen to that organisation and drill down into a number of the findings in the very useful report it has published today. I express my gratitude to the thousands of carers in the country who provide unending care and support for their loved ones. I will tell the House some of the things we intend to do to support them and some of the things we have already done.

I fully understand the importance of respite provision for the families of children and adults with disabilities and, indeed, the positive impact it can have on their lives. That is why we have doubled respite funding since 2018. It is why my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will, in the next couple of weeks, publish a new respite investment plan. That plan will take the additional money we allocated in the budget and detail how the funding will be used to support respite for children and adults. We need to do better and do more when it comes to respite. I am really looking forward to the plan because it will look at a whole variety of different ways we can help families. It will look at how we can provide day respite, more overnight respite and how we can make sure the residential respite capacity that is in place is being fully utilised.

For context, in 2018, there were 87,177 overnight respite nights provided. That number was 151,123 last year, in addition to 45,424 day respite places. I accept we are not doing enough and there is a need to do more. That is why we will publish a respite investment plan to detail how we intend to do more in the months ahead. By any fair measure, the level of respite provision has very significantly increased. The budget has more than doubled and the number of nights provided has gone from more than 87,000 to over 151,000.

Of course, respite is just one of a number of things that are being done to support carers. We also try to support them from a financial point of view through the carer's support grant, which the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, ensured was provided last week to 132,000 carers. This week, we are increasing the carer's allowance disregard, meaning more carers will qualify for that support and more income can be disregarded. That is a very positive way of helping carers.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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Respectfully, I said people did not buy the rhetoric on carers.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In your view.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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What the Taoiseach just said is a really good example of how different the rhetoric is versus the reality of what people experience. The problem with what he is saying is that people have heard it all before. Carers have heard the same promises, not just from him but from his predecessor and the taoisigh before them. Instead of things getting better, they are getting worse. Already threadbare services have become even harder to access. That goes for respite, as well as access to therapies through children's disability network teams, CDNTs. The progressing disability services, PDS, programme is a failure. It has become harder to qualify for financial supports. Respite should be regular and routine. In fact, it is basically non-existent for many people.

The contents of the report by Family Carers Ireland are shameful. The system carers rely on is utterly broken and continuing to deteriorate. Trying to access any kind of support, no matter how meagre, involves a fight. Many carers do not have the energy to fight. They cannot take on the State and care for their loved ones, and they should not have to do so. Almost everyone in this House would be supportive of efforts to improve services and supports for carers. Why has there been so little progress? The Taoiseach says he is doing a report. We have all the reports we need on this issue. What we need is action.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I did not say we are doing a report. We do not need any more reports. I said that between now and budget day, we will review the means test. When I talk to carers-----

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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You mentioned a report on respite.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I referred to the respite investment plan. There are two different issues involved. Let us take them sequentially. In regard to the means test, when I go around the country, there are too many people who find it a bit mean. We want to make the means test more generous and understanding in order that more carers can benefit.

That is why this week - Deputy Cairns can shake her head all she wants; she asks questions and sometimes does not like when I answer them - we are making changes to the income disregard so that more people will benefit from carer's allowance. I am sure the Deputy welcomes that. That is happening this week. No one needs to wait for any report or plan for that. Regarding respite investment, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will quite rightly detail to this House and, much more importantly, to people relying on respite services, how the €15 million extra we have allocated will make a real difference and how we will get from the 87,000 nights we were providing to more than 151,000 and beyond. We will do more. Every year this Government has been in office, we have done more for the carer's allowance, the carer's benefit, means test and respite. I agree with the Deputy and I am willing to work on a non-combative way to see how we can do more. I look forward to meeting Family Carers Ireland this month.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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I thank all the People Before Profit activists who stood for election and campaigned for our candidates and all those people who voted for us. We plan to use our increased council representation to fight for working class people across this country. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are looking pretty pleased with themselves today. I think the Taoiseach said that Fine Gael did better in these elections. Pride comes before a fall.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Be careful, so.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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One crucial fact that should be mentioned is that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael combined had the lowest percentage vote in the history of the State in local elections. Their vote share dropped. They did not have a better election. They had a worse election. Their parties are still deeply unpopular.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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How much did you get?

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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How much did you get?

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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A general election will focus the minds. If a clear left alternative is on offer and there is a chance to end the rule of 100 years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which are responsible for the housing crisis, the health crisis, the lack of action on the cost of living, and the disgraceful situation facing families with kids with additional needs, I think many people will take that chance and a much greater number of people will turn out to do that. We will see.

In this election, we saw a cynical attempt by the Government to make immigration the central issue to distract from its failures. Almost every week in the run-up to the election, the Government had new policies of performative cruelty. I have new figures to show that the Government spent almost €100,000 on clearing tents and erecting fences at the canal while there are thousands of empty beds in State-provided accommodation. The Government announced cuts to payments for Ukrainian women and children and means testing of asylum seekers. It was a trap designed for Sinn Féin, which it unfortunately fell right into by welcoming each of these measures and saying that it would go further. The truth is that none of these policies will do anything to address the housing crisis, the health crisis or the cost-of-living crisis. That €100,000 would have been much better spent on emergency accommodation for homeless people.

The truth is also that the vast majority of people did not fall for this weapon of mass distraction. The big issues on the doors were the housing crisis, healthcare, investment in facilities in our communities and so on. Immigration is not the cause of any of those issues. Responsibility lies with the Government and an economic system which prioritises profit over people's needs. It poses a challenge for the left. We need to come together and to mobilise on the issue of housing. We need a mass demonstration, supported by the trade union movement, on housing before the budget, because with this Government, housing will continue to get worse and worse, because it represents those who profit from the housing crisis, not those who suffer from it. Finally, there will be a general election. We need a vote left, transfer left movement. We need a commitment from parties of the left that there will be no coalition with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael no scapegoating of asylum seekers, and a commitment to take on those who are benefiting from these crises.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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Let us allow people to have a choice in the next election. I think if we inspire people with the chance for an alternative to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, many people will take that choice.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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One choice has been ruled out anyway.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am not really sure where to start there. There will be a general election in due course. I am really looking forward to it because there will definitely be alternative political views on offer. I am not sure who is in this left coalition or whether Sinn Féin is in it.

Maybe its members are not sure themselves either, but they will work it out after they have the review.

Every single week this Government will bring forward new policies, ideas and plans to make progress on some of the issues that are often intractable and difficult because that is what being in Government is about. It is about turning up to work every day, working hard, making decisions and delivering for the people and that is what we intend to do.

The Deputy is beyond wrong when he comes to our approach on migration in terms of how he categorises it. One thing for which I respect the Deputy, and I mean this sincerely, is his consistent calling out of racism. I support him when he does this. We have had exchanges in this House. All of us in this House must continue to call out racism and all examples of racism. I accept the Deputy's bona fides in that regard. When it comes to migration, however, the absolute worst thing for a party of the centre to do, and I know the Deputy might not like parties of the centre, is get off the pitch and shirk responsibility and say it is too difficult and challenging an issue and that there is nothing we can do about it or ask whether it is not just a global challenge and whether we will all just commentate about it. That is a failure of leadership. The only thing that happens when we allow that vacuum to be created is that it gets filled by the far right. I am absolutely determined, as a politician proudly of the centre and as Taoiseach of this country, to not in any way, shape or form allow others to seek to sow division. Therefore, what we are going to do in this country is have a functioning migration system that is fair and has rules. The rules will be applied without fear or favour. We will provide accommodation and shelter, safety and access to sanitation for people. However, we will not just have a conversation about accommodation because that is not the totality of any country's migration policy. We will also talk about processing times. We will talk about how the welfare system interacts and how that happens relative to other European countries. We will, of course, work with the PSNI and others with regard to collaboration because we live in a common travel area. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, is doing work in that regard. We will have deportations for those who do not have a right to be here because that is how any migration system must work. We will continue to invest in integration because this country is better as a result of immigration. Our health services, businesses, shops, communities and schools are all the better. This is about having a balanced approach where the compassion of the Irish people is met with a common-sense system that works. Let us be honest if we can with regard to this debate - we are building a migration system in real time. We have gone from approximately 3,500 people per year coming to this country to more than 20,000 people. People are welcome in Ireland. We want to help people who have a right to be here. In order to do that, we need to make sure we have a system that is efficient and effective. Sadly for the Deputy, though, and I know he will continue to do it through his own reasons, this party is not a nasty party. This Government is not a nasty Government when it comes to migration. It is one that actually wants to push back against the rhetoric of the extremes, deliver for people and make sure we have a sustainable system.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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The Taoiseach said his party is not a nasty party. His party has chosen, with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, shamefully, to give €100,000 to private companies to clear tents, which arrive back the next day, put up fences to block access to our city and to leave people sleeping in tents on our streets. Nobody should be sleeping in a tent on our streets. It is a cynical policy choice to do so. I make the point again; there are empty beds in the State accommodation system that the Government is choosing not to use, and why? In my opinion, it is extremely cynical politics. The Taoiseach knows that if a central issue in the next general election is housing, the cost of living or the healthcare crisis, they are not winning grounds for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They want to centre the issue of migration and to present themselves as being hard even though it will not make a single difference. All this cruelty the Government is doing does not make ordinary people's lives any better whatsoever. The job on our side of the House is to say that very clearly. Migrants are not responsible at all for the housing crisis the Government has caused.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy. The time is up now, please.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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They are not responsible for the cost-of-living crisis. They are not responsible for the health crisis-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The time is up, Deputy. You went way over time earlier.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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-----and I think most people from having this conversation a lot-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Will the Deputy conclude?

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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I certainly will. When we talk to people, most people are actually open to hearing that and they can be won to that argument and know it is the Government's responsibility. They want there to be a real alternative-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Time, Deputy, please.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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-----on offer in a few months' time.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It is always interesting when the Dáil reconvenes after an election and people decide to present the election results in whatever way suits them. All I know is that more people went out and voted for my party than any other party. More people went out and gave Fianna Fáil seats in the local elections than any other party. Many people voted for the Green Party. The people on this side of the House receive many mandates in urban and rural Ireland in big towns and villages. As for this idea of reject, mass, mobilise and get the Government, I am sorry, but it just did not go like that in the past few days, and better luck next time.

We will continue to have a multi-agency approach to this issue. We will not tolerate a siloed approach where one organisation says that is a matter for another Department. I cannot tolerate that sort of nonsense.

The reality of the situation is we were seeing illegal and dangerous tented villages emerging in parts of this city. We were very near a public health emergency. I will make no apology for making sure the laws of the land are upheld and for making sure people are in-----

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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What laws?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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You cannot just erect a tent wherever you want and start blockading streets. You cannot do it. I know that is the Deputy's politics.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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It is not true. It is not illegal.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It is not what this Government will stand over. We will provide people with shelter and sanitation. As a result of our work-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Taoiseach. The time is up.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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-----the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has provided hundreds more people with access to safe accommodation.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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If you provided accommodation, there would not be the tents. Does the Taoiseach think they want to be there?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has no solutions at all but he does not want any, in fairness to him.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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It is bewildering the amount of hype and positivity there is on the Government benches at the local election results which have delivered to the Government net seat losses overall. The Government is entitled to celebrate, and I say, "Fair play to you". Political squabbling will go on between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and them and Sinn Féin and so on, but, in Donegal, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have returned with only two thirds of the seats they won in 2019, with many of their sitting councillors scraping in on last counts. The 100% Redress Party topped the poll in the Carndonagh electoral area, which is the back yard of the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and took four council seats in total. It is now a larger party than Fine Gael on the council and there is a clear message for Government here from the people of Donegal in respect of the defective block redress crisis.

Redress is not working for the thousands of people who are living in crumbling homes across the constituency. They see no end to the saga. They see no future for their families and children and they see no way out of the distress that is ruining their lives. They are a strong and stoic people but they are at the end of their tether. They have repeatedly told the Government why the scheme will not work for them. Now they have used the electoral system to deliver their message. They have elected Ali Farren in Carndonagh, Joy Beard in Buncrana, Tomás Divine in Letterkenny and Denis McGee in Gweedore to reinforce their message.

I have raised this issue more than 50 times on the floor of the House during the term of this current Dáil and each and every time, I and other Opposition TDs from the county get the same old rhetoric from the Taoiseach and the Government. They quote figures. They tell me it is the biggest scheme ever of its kind. They look at me dismissively, as if to say, "That is sorted. Why are you bringing it up here again?", but they do not really listen. They have not listened as we give voice to the real concerns the families have living with defective blocks, but now the Taoiseach has a chance to do so.

The stark reality is plain to see. The scheme is not working. It does not reflect the science that has emerged - science that was driven by the defective block campaign itself, not by Departments or the political system. The scheme is failing the families across Donegal whose lives are devastated by the defective blocks. The defective blocks crisis also affects community buildings, public buildings and everything built in the past 20 years in the county, reflecting a failed self-certification system brought in by Governments of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

The Taoiseach has a chance to fix this. My advice is that he should take it. He should make a scheme that, once and for all, reflects and works to address the needs of all families in Donegal and, indeed, those across the country as the scheme widens. Will the Taoiseach, once and for all, address the failures of the defective block redress scheme and make a scheme that is fit for purpose?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Pringle for raising this issue. I know this has been extraordinarily tough and difficult. Those words do not fully capture the struggle and the stress that many families living in the Deputy's county and some other counties have been dealing with as a result of the loss and destruction of their homes due to defective blocks. We have worked very hard on this issue as a Government. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has worked very hard on this at the Cabinet table with our colleagues as well.

We have now seen over 1,600 applications. These are real applications from real people. I ask the Deputy not to roll his eyes to heaven. They have been received to the previous scheme and now we have received more than 350 additional applications to the enhanced scheme up to the end of February of this year. This is a lot of people. This is 1,950 applications.

The 2022 Act, which we passed, underpins the new enhanced grant scheme and it has designated the counties of Clare, Donegal, Limerick and Mayo as being within the enhanced scheme. The final regulations were put in place as a result of an extended and extensive amount of consultation with key stakeholders, particularly the local authorities and the homeowner action groups.

The Minister for housing received Government approval last month for the designation of Sligo County Council under the scheme and will now arrange for the moving of a motion for a resolution in each House of the Oireachtas and then bring a second memorandum to Government seeking to give effect to that as well.

The Housing Agency is currently working through the process with three additional local authorities, in counties Carlow and Wexford and with Fingal County Council.

The Cabinet agreed today to try to resolve various issues highlighted by affected homeowners looking to avail of SEAI support. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will announce details of that in due course. He has worked hard on that as well. We have also set up, under the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, an implementation steering group for the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme. This includes officials from the relevant councils, the Department and the Housing Agency, as well as the homeowners liaison officer. The group has met several times over the past number of months. It is charged with keeping the regulations and guidelines, and their operation, under review and will continue to do so. We will continue to engage and to listen.

Homes are now being remediated. Homes have been remediated. This scheme, and it is a large scheme, is making a real and positive impact. Even in the actions we took today at Cabinet, we are showing an ongoing willingness to listen and to try to respond as best we can. The scheme is open and applications are coming in. I hope this will at last make a real and meaningful difference to many families.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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There is no doubt the scheme is open and, as the Taoiseach said, there have been 1,500 applications, but thousands upon thousands of houses have to be redressed. It is a scheme that will last 25 or 30 years, at the rate the Government is going at present. It is a scheme that does not meet the needs of many people. There are people in their 50s and early 60s who are looking at having a build cost of €50,000 to €80,000 just to redress their houses. This is not a 100% scheme. The Government lauded it as such, but people will be paying €50,000 to €80,000 to get into a 100% redress scheme. This does not make sense. It does not suit families. Those people cannot go to a bank to remortgage because banks will not give them anything. Many of them are pensioners who cannot go on. The scheme cannot be willed on so they cannot even do it in that way. These are things the Government could do to make changes. Indeed, on mortgageability, houses will not be mortgageable after families get redress. Campaign groups have been trying to get the Government to address this. A meeting at the Department was postponed four times. I do not think it has met since January. That is wrong. The scheme is not meeting the needs of the people who need it. We will be here for many years to come at the rate the Government is currently going.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I gave the Deputy figures to the end of February but I have just seen that to the end of April we have had 1,644 applications to the previous scheme and 436 to the enhanced scheme. That is just for the record because it is important to give the most up-to-date figures. Today, we took-----

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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It is 29 years at the last-----

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy knows this is a serious issue. I am trying to respond with the seriousness the issue deserves, if that is okay.

Today, the Government took another decision that will benefit householders in the Deputy's constituency to the tune of tens of thousands of euro. These are substantive decisions that were taken. When we are in government, we do not just point out the problems; we also have to work to come up with the solutions. We took another decision today that I hope will show people in the Deputy's constituency, which I believe it will, and people in other affected counties, that the Government is listening. As issues arise as the scheme progresses, we are trying to respond. Today's decision is one very practical example of that. We will continue to listen and to try to respond as best we can.

People are applying to this scheme today. Homes are being remediated. The implementation group is in place. I would like to see the engagement the Deputy mentioned, which has not taken place, take place. I will certainly follow up with the Department of housing on that.