Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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The legal challenge initiated by Sinn Féin MEPs Lynn Boylan and Kathleen Funchion, and The Left group which includes Luke Ming Flanagan, to refer the Mercosur trade deal to the European Court of Justice was narrowly but thankfully won in the European Parliament yesterday. I commend them, and Deputy Kenny here, on their months and years of hard work. I stand here as a rural TD where farming matters, where food security matters and where environmental protection matters. The thing about rural people is that they say what they mean and they mean what they say. This is in complete contrast to the carry-on and the codology of the Government stance on Mercosur, which reached a pinnacle of extraordinary spectacle yesterday when half of Government MEPs voted against the referral to the ECJ test and half voted for it. The referral seeks to ascertain whether the agreement is in breach of EU law. What is it, Tánaiste? Is his party and the Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry Independents for or against the Mercosur deal? It has now been suggested by Ursula von der Leyen that the provisional enactment of the deal should be put through. Is the Tánaiste going to stop that? How can Government stop it if it does not know what side it is on?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I know what side the Government is on. The Deputy is engaging in what our counterpart across the Atlantic Ocean would call "fake news." This Government opposed the Mercosur agreement.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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They voted.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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No, Deputy. You had your say. Allow me to speak too. In a democracy, allow me to speak too.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Conway-Walsh, please.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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This is not a kangaroo court. You speak and I speak. Thank you. You made an assertion and I am going to answer it very clearly. The Government voted against the Mercosur agreement. There was no vote yesterday in the European Parliament on the Mercosur agreement. Do you know what there should have been? There should have been a "Yes" or "No" vote.

What people have done by saying to the courts, "Will you have a look at it?", is injected uncertainty for up to two years for Irish farmers and European farmers, at a time of enough uncertainty.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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We blocked it.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Do you know what vote I would have liked to take place yesterday? A "Yes" or "No" vote.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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We blocked it, which the Government failed to do.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I have never needed, as a parliamentarian, the courts to tell me what way to vote.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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We blocked it, which the Government failed to do.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I wanted a situation where MEPs of all sides had a chance to vote "Yes" or "No", not run off to the courts for the next two years.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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We blocked it.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Do not misrepresent our position. We know exactly where we stand. This Government has the backs of farmers but it does not believe in performative politics.

Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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A total of 190 people died tragically on our roads last year, the highest level in ten years. There have been a few events in recent weeks that undermine people's faith in this Government's and this State's commitment to road safety at an institutional level. The Minister for Transport stated in a response to me last week that there is only so much the State can do and that driver behaviour is a big issue. I agree that driver behaviour is a huge issue but that is no surprise because we have little to no enforcement on our roads. This Government is stalling on simple measures like red light cameras and lower urban speed limits. There were supposed to be 150 new roads policing gardaí over the last two years but I understand that, at best, we have another 91. I would like a commitment from this Government that additional resources will be provided to An Garda Síochána so that we can enforce the rules of the road to the highest extent possible and stamp out increasingly dangerous driving.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Hear, hear.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ahern for raising this issue. We are going in the wrong direction in relation to road safety. The Deputy's comments are fair. There is a whole multitude of reasons including a level of increased distraction in the car as well as more cars on our roads but there are also legitimate issues around enforcement of existing legislation. It might be useful to find a way very soon in this House to explore how best we can all assist in trying to address this issue. Of course, driver behaviour is an issue but the Government and An Garda Síochána will play their part in terms of additional resourcing for roads policing. I will ask the Minister for justice to revert to the Deputy directly with an update on the latest figures in relation to gardaí in this area and on how we believe we can make more progress.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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The Minister for education, Deputy Naughton, has said that the use of Grok to create sexualised images of women and child sex abuse material is "very concerning". She went on to say that we need to make sure that we tackle it and keep our young people safe. I wholeheartedly agree with her and I am sure the Tánaiste does too. Can the Tánaiste explain why the Department of Education and Youth is still posting images of children on X? Given what we know about what is happening on that platform, how can we possibly justify using it? Ironically, the Department is in the process of reviewing social media use guidance for schools in the wake of this scandal. Digital Rights Ireland has now written to the Department of Education and Youth querying why it continues to post pictures of children on X and says that posting images of individuals to the platform constitutes a "high risk" to those individuals and especially to children. I have stopped using X myself and I would prefer all State bodies and Government Departments to stop using it. Could the Tánaiste at least give a guarantee that Government Departments and Ministers will stop posting pictures of children and young people to that platform?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It is a very fair point that the Deputy makes and I will certainly speak with the Minister in relation to it. We are all trying to grapple with this in real time. I very much respect, genuinely, Members of this House, public bodies and others that have decided to leave the platform. I can understand why they have done that. Equally and currently in this space, I have decided for the moment to stay on it because it is a pitch I did not want to leave to the malign influences. It is important that we continue to put forward our points but it is a balance call. It is a tough one. The Deputy's specific point in relation to child safety and the posting of children's images on X is a serious one that deserves a response. While there have been changes to the use of that app in Ireland, the broader point she makes is valid. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to revert to the Deputy on it.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Healy for raising the matter of ophthalmology in south Tipperary. I acknowledge it is an issue he has raised in this House previously. I will speak directly to the Minister for Health and ask that she examines the matter with the HSE and reverts to the Deputy.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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Yesterday the European Parliament voted to pause the Mercosur deal. No sooner had that vote taken place than the European Commission and many senior members and politicians, including the German Chancellor, effectively stated that they wanted to proceed provisionally with the implementation of Mercosur. The position of Ursula von der Leyen and the Commission is very clear in relation to this but our position has been ambivalent at best. During the last round at the European Council, you really came in at the eleventh hour in terms of your opposition. The provisional implementation will go before the European Council and will need a qualified majority vote. Will the Government engage across Europe with the wavering nations in particular and ensure that the voices of the European Parliament and the people are heard and that this Mercosur deal will go through the courts and a court decision will be reached before the provisional implementation of this deal?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I have consistently said on the public record that the people's democratically elected representatives across the European Union should never be taken for granted in relation to Mercosur. I have consistently said that. There has been a misrepresentation by some, although not by Deputy Lawless, that it was all about the European Council. Yes, the Council had a vote and Ireland voted "No" but there is a co-decisionmaking power and the European Parliament also has a vote. What I would have much preferred to happen yesterday, to give certainty to Irish farmers, was that the European Parliament had direct vote in relation to its consent to the trade agreement. I believe if that had happened, a very significant majority of Government MEPs would have opposed the deal. Instead, we have a situation where it now goes off for a court review that could take two years. That leaves this grey area now where the European Commission may try to provisionally implement the agreement. Ireland's position and that of the Government of Ireland is clear in opposing the Mercosur agreement in its current form. There was no question of an eleventh hour. We worked, as did France and President Macron, up to the last minute to see what we could get in terms of a good deal for farmers. We never gave up. We kept working but when we did not get a deal that was good enough, we voted against it. We kept our word and I am proud of how we handled that. We will continue, at Government level, to be consistent in relation to it.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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In east Galway we have a problem in that more and more GP practices are declaring that they can no longer take on more patients. They are at capacity and that is a significant issue. We also have another issue whereby we are not retaining our young doctors coming out university. We invest so much in our young people and their education, from primary school, through secondary school, buses, hot school meals, SUSI and so on, only for them to leave the country. What is the Government's plan to retain young doctors and young Irish people here so that they can serve rural communities like Galway east and ensure that we have GP capacity when we need it?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Dolan for raising this issue. I would point out that we have made a number of investments to try to assist GPs in making their practices more sustainable in recent times, including a relatively new revision to the GP contract and assistance in terms of staffing for GP practices. One of the models that I am personally quite favourably disposed to, and which is allowed for in the programme for Government, is the idea of salaried GPs. When students come out of medical school and out of GP training they want to be a doctor. They want to serve their community but may not necessarily want to be the manager of all that goes with that. They want to actually be seeing patients. There are also some parts of the country where it can be more difficult to be financially viable. I would personally like to see an acceleration of the roll out of salaried GPs as one way to make progress. There are other ways and the Deputy may be implying that, in the context of our education system, we could provide more assistance and in return, people could agree to provide a level of service. That is something that should be considered too. I will ask the Minister for Health and perhaps also the Minister for further and higher education, Deputy Lawless, to engage with the Deputy on this.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The programme for Government committed to evaluating options to amend the ECCE eligibility criteria and it is clear why. It relies on a blunt cut-off date for children starting the ECCE scheme whereby they must be two years and eight months by 1 September. The inequity this causes is obvious from replies I have received to parliamentary questions. A total of 17% of children do not take up the second year of the free ECCE scheme. When that 17% is broken down by birth month, 3,257 were born in January, while just 171 were born in December.

Because of a matter of days or weeks, thousands of children are missing out on a full year of ECCE entitlement, the development benefits for the child and the financial benefits for the family. It is developmentally transformative, which is why Fine Gael increased it to two years. This is especially unjust when those children will start school at the same time as their December-born peers, but at a disadvantage.

In my mind, there is no need to delay on this. A review on ECCE was completed in October. We need a more flexible, inclusive system.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Currie for raising this issue. I acknowledge her work as a vocal advocate for parents and providers and for getting this whole area of childcare right. I think that with all that went on in the world, perhaps it did not get as much attention this week as it merited. We took a very significant step forward this week with the capital investment for public facilities in relation to childcare and I thank the Minister, Deputy Foley, for that too.

The issue the Deputy has raised is an important issue because ECCE has been transformational. We all see it. We see it in our own children and we see it in our schools. Children are going into schools so much better prepared, educationally but also from a child development point of view. We do have the commitment in the programme for Government to amend eligibility criteria for ECCE. I take the point the Deputy makes in relation to the loss of time that a child might experience. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Foley, to provide a timeline for when we intend to progress that commitment.

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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The position of Larry Murrin as chairman of Bord Bia is totally untenable. He has direct involvement in the importation of substandard Brazilian beef into Ireland. No Irish food processor should be importing this product into Ireland, but the fact that the chair of Bord Bia, an organisation that is tasked with promoting the quality of Irish food around the world, is absolutely outrageous. It is a conflict of interest and it undermines Irish farming. It is an absolute insult to Irish farmers, who have to meet the highest standards in food production. The Government appointed him to this position. It now needs to hold him accountable. It also needs to stop dodging the question: does it have confidence in him and will it remove him from this position?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I think the Sinn Féin proposal might be to disband Bord Bia and just let you lads run the organisation. We have a board at Bord Bia and the way State boards work is very clear. They meet, they look at different issues in relation to corporate governance and then they can provide a report to the Minister. That is happening in real time. It is happening as we meet today.

I believe in due process. I believe in these issues being considered. Conflicts of interest, real or perceived, are important governance issues, absolutely. I think the position adopted by the president of the IFA - have a meeting, ask the questions and then decide - is a far more reasonable and responsible position.

Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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This week, I would like to use my time to speak about carer's allowance and, in particular, the commitment in the programme for Government to abolish the means test. In Carlow and Kilkenny, I know many families where one parent gives up work to care full time for a child and the other parent then needs to work extra hours to pay the mortgage and bills. This additional necessary income then prevents the family carer from receiving carer's allowance because the family's means are often deemed too high.

I acknowledge and truly welcome the increase in the income disregard that is coming into effect on 1 July, where the families like the ones I have just described will now be able to earn €2,000 per week and still receive carer's allowance, but can the Tánaiste please offer me a timeline for when the means test will be completely abolished?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Callaghan for raising this issue and bringing people into this debate because this is a real issue and we want to support carers right across this country. Carers are doing incredible work. They are also saving this State an absolute fortune and I acknowledge that as well.

I am pleased to say that the programme for Government commitment we have given to abolish the means test over the lifetime of the Government is well under way. The last budget saw the largest ever increase in the carer's allowance income disregard, so we have taken a very strong and important start in relation to that. We significantly increased the income disregard for carer's allowance and we intend to do that in each budget. The pace at which we do it will be a matter for each individual budget, but that is how we will get to our programme for Government commitment. From July last year, the amount of weekly earnings disregard was increased to €625 for a single person and €1,250 for a couple. The budget then built on that with further improvements to the means test, which will be introduced from this July. They will see the income disregard increase by 60% for a single person, from €625 to €1,000, and, as Deputy rightly said, from €1,250 to €2,000 for carers who are part of a couple. We intend to build on that and continue to support our carers and fulfil our programme for Government commitment to abolish the means test over the lifetime of the Government.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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This week, I and many of my Government colleagues welcomed the over €12 million allocated in local sports partnership grants. What was not welcomed was the method of the county breakdown in which it was allocated. It is not just about this round of grants; it is across many grants that are distributed through local authorities and local community development committees. There is a narrative in here that Dublin gets everything, but that is not borne out in the facts of those community-type grants.

If we look at Dublin City or Dún Laoghaire or Fingal, they all received broadly similar figures of around €450,000, as Offaly did. Offaly has a population of 90,000, while many of those areas have populations of 300,000 or 400,000 and, in the case of Dublin city, 600,000. South Dublin County Council received €350,000 despite having a population six times the size of counties like Longford and Carlow. I am afraid to mention too many places because my colleagues will be claiming that they delivered.

Given the cross-departmental responsibility the Department of the Taoiseach has, will it examine this issue? We understand it cannot be strictly per capita, but there is an unfairness here. Our local urban villages cannot access the town and village renewal scheme, for example. This is an issue that we need to look at. Will the Tánaiste work with his colleagues in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to see if we can get a better deal for Dublin?

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Is there a split in the ranks of the Government?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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You mentioned a lot of counties there. Deputy Clendennen nearly jumped over the seat when you said Offaly.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I did not mention Wicklow, Tánaiste.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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You did not mention Wicklow, which I appreciate. The point is a serious one because we quite rightly have a Department of rural and community affairs and it is doing very good work. We have a number of schemes as well. There are obviously issues in areas of particularly fast-growing populations and areas of increased population density. Dublin as a city and a county, and I would go as far to say the greater Dublin area, does have particular pressures in terms of population growth as well. There is never an exact science in relation to this. Population is one index, as are need and deprivation; there are a variety of indexes. It is a fair point that the Deputy makes. I will discuss it with both the Minister for sport and the Minister of State for sport. Perhaps it is a piece that we could get the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service to look at just to make sure we are meeting the needs of all of our country's communities, urban and rural, but I am pleased this Government is increasing funding right across this country.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Absolutely. It is very welcome.

Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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Curragh Community College in my constituency of Kildare South is in a state of utter disrepair. The school community was promised a new school building nearly a decade ago and they are still waiting. There are several problems with mould and leaks. The ceilings are falling in and the conditions are absolutely hazardous. A number of classrooms have already closed; therefore, students are on a rotation between attending on site and home learning. For students sitting State exams, it is completely unfair. Students cannot be expected to learn, nor should teachers and staff be expected to work in such conditions. I commend the students who contacted me directly and their parents. The students are staging a walk-out next Tuesday in protest. It should not have had to come to this. I was due to meet the students last week and they had another unexpected school closure due to issues with their water. It is happening very frequently. The level of disruption is unacceptable. I have written to the Tánaiste's party colleagues the previous Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the current Minister, Deputy Naughton. I have submitted parliamentary questions. I do not know what else we can do. We need an immediate intervention. Will the Tánaiste please intervene to deliver this new school building as a matter of urgency?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for the way she illustrated the serious impact this is having on the community college. I too commend the advocacy of the students. I take her point that they should not have to be doing this, but the pride they take in their school community and their own education is commendable. I certainly urge them to feel free to write to me or the Minister for education. I would be happy to revert to them on this as well. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to come back to the Deputy directly on this. I know that the education capital plan is due to be published imminently, in the next couple of weeks. I will ask that the Minister looks at it in that context and comes back to the Deputy directly.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I welcome to the Gallery healthcare assistants from Northside Home Care. They are workers who do incredibly important work. They work antisocial hours, on evenings and weekends. Many of them worked on Christmas Day and despite their Trojan work for our elderly, they receive only the minimum wage or just above it. Their pay levels are effectively below what they were paid in 2009. They received pay cuts then and have never received pay restoration.

They have been excluded from a pay increase for the social, community and voluntary sector. They are being paid far less than healthcare assistants who are employed directly by the HSE, yet they do the same work. This has forced this group of workers to go on strike. These workers look after our loved ones in our communities, helping people to stay in their homes and out of hospital. This is some of the most important work anyone could do and it is being massively undervalued. The way the workers are being treated is a disgrace. Will the Minister for Health meet the group of workers, and will the Government act to ensure they are paid a fair wage, which they deserve?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy O’Callaghan for raising the issue. I welcome the people in the Gallery and thank them for being here today. I am trying to familiarise myself with this issue in real time. My understanding is that all homecare services funded by the HSE have now received the pay uplift they were meant to receive through the WRC agreement but that there are a number of services that do not receive direct funding through the HSE. However, I also understand that Northside Home Care Services does receive some section 39 funding in relation to the meals-on-wheels service it provides. I believe the HSE reached out to Northside Home Care Services last week to remind it, the employer, of the process for claiming an uplift in pay funding in respect of the section 39 funding it receives. I will personally speak to the chief executive of the HSE and revert to the Deputy directly.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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I raised the issue of congestion in my constituency yesterday. I also attended a meeting of the tourism committee at which we discussed issues such as the new EU resolution that electric vehicles, EVs, will have to be introduced for car rental by 2030. There has been a little blowback on that. Dublin Airport does not have the capacity and it accounts for 80% of all car hires. There is some flexibility, though, in terms of Dublin Airport. Given that 38% of people who come into Dublin Airport and hire a car there go to the west, there is a lot of scope for Ireland West Airport in terms of providing grants to charge EVs there and having overnight charging facilities in the area. This is also valid from a congestion perspective. All the cars going from Dublin Airport directly to the west are clogging up the M50 and also the N4 in my constituency. There is synergy possible in this regard. Ireland West Airport could have more planes landing there for tourists who love to drive automatic electric cars.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Gogarty. I always find these questions are so broad-ranging. This is an area I need to familiarise myself with more but I believe there is validity to what the Deputy says in that we want to ensure we fully utilise all of the airport infrastructure we have in the country. I am quite sure people in the west would welcome an increased flow there, particularly because so many who go to Dublin end up travelling west.

Sitting beside the Minister of State responsible for planning, I am aware we are looking into planning exemptions for EV charging points and the like, which might help with a tangential but nonetheless important issue. I will ask the Minister for Transport, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, to consider the Deputy’s suggestion and revert to him directly.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I want to raise the issue of childcare. Yesterday, we heard that 40,000 children are on waiting lists and that over 1,000 childcare facilities have closed over the past six years. I am raising, in particular, the issue of the numerous parents in my own constituency who have contacted me because they are terrified that their crèche, UniKids Childcare, in the National Technology Park, Castletroy, will likely have to close due to core funding issues. The launch of the Government plan to provide State-led early learning, while welcome, will do nothing to ease their worries unless core funding caps are considered. What is the Government doing to help parents with kids in crèches like UniKids, which are at risk of closure due to underfunding? Will the Tánaiste look into the core funding cap in relation to this?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Sheehan very much for raising this important issue. A record number of services are now operating within core funding, with a 5% increase on last year. Four thousand five hundred and fifty-nine services are now signed up for core funding. However, I take the point that a parent of a child in Castletroy concerned about his or her own service will want to know what is going to happen locally in addition to the national numbers.

We have very much kicked off some of our key commitments on childcare. We will be reducing childcare costs for 47,000 low-income families by providing them with additional subsidies under the national childcare scheme this year. We saw the capital investment plan announced yesterday as well. The issue of core funding will, of course, be examined as part of the childcare plan, as it must be. However, I will ask the relevant Minister, Deputy Foley, to engage directly with the Deputy, particularly if there is local concern about Castletroy.

Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I want to raise again on the floor of the Dáil the issue of the much-loved 123 bus service, now the 73, that runs from the city centre to Marino. It was restructured by the NTA under BusConnects without consultation. It was moved away from O’Connell Street without consultation and given to Go-Ahead to operate without consultation. From the growing number of complaints I have heard from local residents, it is not working. At the best of times, it is difficult for punters to raise an issue with the NTA but the NTA needs to read our collective lips. This service is not working.

At a time when we talk about increased congestion and the importance of bus services to deal with congestion and move people out of cars, we have a service that is clearly struggling and under pressure. I ask that the Tánaiste help public representatives and the community to get the NTA officials around the table for dialogue so we can try to resolve some of these issues.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I will, indeed. I thank Deputy Ó Muirí very much for raising the issue. Since he raised it with me on a number of occasions, I have a detailed note here. I am a great believer in what he said, namely that if enough people are raising an issue with him and other public representatives in Dublin Bay North, then there is an issue, and that issue needs to be considered with humility and respect, and in a constructive manner, by State agencies. If changes have been made, there is no point in people who do not get a particular bus writing notes to everyone to say that bus is going grand. Therefore, I will certainly speak directly to the Minister for Transport and ask for real and meaningful engagement with public representatives on this. The NTA tells me there was public consultation in advance of the changes. It also tells me it will review feedback it is receiving on local connectivity. I detect the scepticism and frustration the Deputy is articulating on behalf of his constituents and therefore I will ask the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, to discuss this matter with him directly and determine whether we can have meaningful engagement with the NTA.

Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I want to draw the Tánaiste’s attention to the urgent and growing need for increased funding for the community involvement scheme and the local improvement scheme, particularly in Sligo-Leitrim and south Donegal. I am sure he is very much aware of this need. The programmes are vital for rural connectivity and safety, yet they remain significantly under-resourced. In 2025, Sligo County Council received €473,000 under the schemes. This allocation allowed for 13 roads to be completed. Meanwhile, 103 additional schemes remain on the waiting list, affecting communities that have been waiting year after year for essential upgrades. The estimated cost of addressing this backlog now exceeds €5 million. This figure continues to rise and roads continue to deteriorate.

To make meaningful progress to ensure rural communities will not be left behind, at least €2 million will be required annually over the coming years. Without investment at this level, the backlog will persist indefinitely and the gap between need and delivery will only widen. I strongly appeal to the Department to increase the funding for the local improvement and community involvement schemes in Sligo-Leitrim and south Donegal so essential local infrastructure can be upgraded for the communities that both need it and that have waited for far too long. These people pay the same taxes as everyone else in the country and deserve the same treatment as everyone else.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am very sympathetic to and supportive of the point Deputy Scanlon made. The relevant Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and I were just discussing the fact that the money spent on the schemes represents some of the best value achieved by the State in its expenditure. There is no waste or messing around, and the return on investment is good, real, meaningful, tangible and pretty immediate.

I am proud of the work we have done together over the past while. It has seen progress. In this regard, the Deputy has talked about the projects delivered in his own constituency. However, he made the point that for each success, many projects need to be delivered. I will engage with the relevant Departments to determine what more we can do to support the schemes, which really help communities, particularly rural ones.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I want to ask about the pension auto-enrolment scheme, particularly for community organisations. Clondalkin Drug and Alcohol Task Force estimates auto-enrolment will cost its organisation about €6,000 in 2026. If things stay as they are, that will rise to €12,000 after three years, €18,000 after six and €24,000 after nine. It is not sustainable if the funding remains the same. Other projects are in the same boat. Another organisation that contacted me said it will cost it €10,000 this year. These organisations are not businesses.

They are not able to get revenue in, increase costs or anything like that. They rely on Government funding to provide the services. They are already engaging in fundraising activities to cover funding deficits that are already there. I am not being critical of auto-enrolment. It is a really good idea and these organisations are really happy that their workers are getting pensions but unless they receive supports, they may have to cut vital services, which goes against their service level agreements. Has the Government got a solution to this issue?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It is a fair point and I, like the Deputy, do not want to pit workers against management because what we are all trying to do here is make sure that people who have not had pension provision before can in the future and that we end the really difficult gap between people who have pensions and do not have them. That is the ultimate aim. As schemes are rolled out, issues will have to be resolved and the Government obviously does not want to see a deviation or reduction in the level of service provision to address pay or pensions issues. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, who has responsibility for auto-enrolment, to take this example the Deputy has given in relation to Clondalkin and to come back to him directly on the issue.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Will the Tánaiste join me in welcoming performers and participants from Jenin refugee camp and the Freedom Theatre who are coming here? They will be performing Return to Palestine starting next Wednesday in the Project Arts Centre as part of the Seachtain Saoirse don Phalaistín, the week of freedom for Palestine, organised by Cairde Amharclann na Saoirse in Éirinn, friends of the Freedom Theatre in Palestine. To understand the context, this theatre in Jenin was destroyed by the Israelis in one of successive attacks in 2023 before 7 October of that year. Since then, the entire Jenin refugee camp has effectively been ethnically cleansed. It has been subject to absolutely brutal attacks in the occupied West Bank, putting to lie the suggestion by Israel that it was all to do with 7 October. These artists are coming here, brought by Irish artists, as part of the cultural resistance of the Palestinian people against their dehumanisation, occupation and the destruction of that theatre. It was destroyed mid-performance. Lots of people were killed in these attacks by the Israeli occupation forces in Jenin. They deserve to be welcomed and I would encourage people to go to the Project Arts Centre and see the performance they are putting on as well as some of the other events that are part of the week.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for highlighting this issue. I join him in welcoming the performers and participants from the theatre group. I thank him for reminding us of the horrific horrors that have been experienced there. Culture and art can often be a very important part of shining a spotlight on this and I join with the Deputy in welcoming them.