Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I too want to be associated with the words about Brigid McGlynn and thank her for her many years of service to this House and to all who served here.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are presiding over a serious immediate crisis in cancer care. Of the 23 radiotherapy machines in our health system, 80% require immediate replacement. There is no structure for planned replacement in place. These are life-saving machines that are breaking down frequently. They need constant maintenance and new parts. The health committee heard this week oncology experts outlining the impacts of the breakdowns on cancer patients. They talked about missed treatments, delayed treatments, longer treatments, delays that reduce the chance of survival for people. Imagine what that means to somebody when they hear that, when they are fighting for their life. Imagine what that means to the family of that cancer patient. How in God's name has the Government allowed this situation to develop? How has it allowed vital radiotherapy machines to get so old that they break down so often? Cancer experts have called for an urgent replacement programme. Is the Government listening and will it act? Why has it been allowed to get to this crisis point?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We are listening, we are acting. It is an important and serious issue. We have made a lot of progress in relation to improvement to our cancer services over a sustained period. Under the current national cancer strategy, we have already allocated €105 million to support our cancer services and an additional €120 million in direct investment in radiation oncology centres in Cork and Galway to address the radiotherapy equipment needs. Funding has been allocated in this year's capital plan to progress a linear accelerator replacement programme under way at St. Luke's radiation oncology network in Dublin as well and I expect progress on that very shortly.

My understanding is that the Department of Health and the HSE are developing a strategic infrastructure programme to plan for replacement and expansion at public radiation oncology services.

George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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Last year, the N25 around the area of Glenmore in County Kilkenny was the recipient of a much welcome static speed camera. However, because of inadequate and poorly placed signage, this camera is penalising even the safest of drivers. Literally thousands of drivers have been caught by this static speed camera because there is no adequate signage. People driving at 100 km/h have to drop to 80 km/h when they see the sign but given that they come into the camera's zone within 50 or 60 yards, they have no chance to adjust their speed properly. I spoke to a woman recently who received three penalty notices, in other words nine points, in the space of a week as a result of the poor and inadequate signage to which I refer. As the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will probably agree, this has energised the people of south Kilkenny and Wexford. One hundred tickets a week are going to Wexford people who use this road, which is the main Waterford to Wexford road. Can the relevant authorities be asked to improve upon this? People are suffering and being penalised rather unfairly.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I rarely disagree with the Deputy, and I do not mean to be argumentative, but that woman in Wexford received penalty points because she was speeding not because there was a lack of signage. Speed kills. I encourage people to put up correct signage, but we are living through a road safety crisis. Static cameras are an effort to try to assist people. Nobody likes to get penalty points. If you obey the rules of the road, you will not get penalty points.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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Some 14% of Irish people are unable afford to heat their homes or pay their energy bills and 317,000 people are in arrears on their electricity bills. This is only going to get worse. The Social Democrats have called for a targeted energy credit scheme for households earning less than €70,000. That is a short-term measure. Obviously, we need longer term and more sustainable measures to deal with the energy crisis. The Tánaiste has spoken about heat pumps and electric cars, but these are out of the reach of many people. The biggest bang for the State's buck would be the use of solar. One million homes in Ireland are suitable for solar. Using solar would reduce people's electricity costs by 40%. The Social Democrats has a Solar for All plan. We call for a doubling of the grants for all households, a €1,000 grant for batteries, free panels for those eligible for the warmer homes scheme and the rolling out of plug-in solar across the country. I ask the Tánaiste to consider that as part of the upcoming package.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Before answering, I would like to welcome the young people in the Gallery from the Youth Advocate Programme, Foróige and Springboard Family Support Project, all of whom appeared in front of the Joint Committee on Children and Equality. Deputy Keogh, the Chair of the committee, asked me to say that. They were before the committee in respect of the topic of online safety, which, I assure them, is something we always discuss here across the political divide. Listening to young people's voices is an important of that. Go raibh míle maith agaibh for your contribution.

In the context of this crisis, we cannot afford say we are the Government and this is our idea, you are the Opposition and they are your ideas and because they say it, it is a bad idea and because we say it, it is a good idea. Some of the ideas the Deputy's party has put forward around solar panels merit serious consideration. It has been a constructive contribution to the debate; I say that sincerely. We believe we are doing a lot more to try to help people make the transition. The figures show some progress, and there has been a 186% increase in people accessing grants. However, solar is an area we can go further on. If the proposals of the Social Democrats are constructive in relation to that, they will get proper consideration by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Government as a whole. I know that, and I know that the Minister has engaged constructively in respect of this matter.

On energy credits, I have to keep making the point - because I really believe it - that an energy crisis in the winter is very different to an energy crisis in the summer. We are not ruling out further interventions that may be required. At this stage, however, we are not quite sure where the energy situation or the war will be. We continue to keep the matter under review.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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The programme for Government contains a commitment for the creation of more jobs in the regions outside Dublin. However, IDA Ireland and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment seem to have a blind spot when it comes to County Laois. Despite Portlaoise and Laois being located on the crossroads of Ireland at the N7, N8, N77, N80, the performance of IDA Ireland and the Department in Laois is dismal. There are just 156 IDA Ireland-backed jobs in the county. More than 12,000 workers commute out of the county every morning. Some have to drive long distances and can find themselves sitting in traffic for two hours. The Leprino cheese factory, which has only been there for three years, is due to close very shortly, with the loss of 132 jobs. I raise this because we do not seem to have got anywhere with it over the years. People have been raising it for three decades. The figures say that 156 jobs have been created but that 132 are going. What is being done by IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to get replacement industries for the Leprino plant?

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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What is being done to develop the 60-plus acres owned by IDA Ireland outside Portlaoise-----

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Deputy Stanley.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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-----and get industry onto those sites? Will the Tánaiste take this matter up with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and his Department and ask them to urge IDA Ireland to act quickly in respect of this matter?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The short answer is that I will speak to my colleague the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, in relation to this. Thankfully, we live in a country that has had full employment for 16 consecutive quarters, but we are not in any way complacent in saying that. We are seeing a churn, for want of a better phrase, in the jobs market. There is no room for complacency. That is why IDA Ireland, which had its most successful year ever last year, and Enterprise Ireland are receiving a lot of Government support.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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Not in Laois.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On the Deputy's point about the need to have a plan for replacement jobs in Laois and the use of IDA Ireland land is a fair on, as is that which he makes around people's quality of life and traffic congestion. We believe passionately in balanced regional development. On foot of the Deputy raising this matter today, I will ask the Minister to speak to IDA Ireland and to come back to him directly.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Tánaiste will not be surprised that I am again raising the issue of rare diseases. In the coming weeks, RTÉ will be broadcasting a "Prime Time Investigates" programme on this topic that will highlight the difficulties patients with such diseases have in accessing drugs here. The Tánaiste was Minister for Health in 2017, so I know he is aware of this matter. Back then, he described the system as broken. The system has not changed one bit in the intervening nine years. There was a bit of transparency in the form of an online tracker, but, fundamentally, the process is the same. I have got to know a lot of people, as has Deputy Aird, over the past few months like Emily Felix, who suffers from Friedreich's ataxia, and Craig Coady, the parent of two boys who also have that terrible and debilitating disease, one of whom passed away, unfortunately. The end for the second child is inevitable because we continue to bury our heads in the sand. We in this House are participants in this because we continue to oversee an overly bureaucratic process that blocks patients from accessing treatment. In some cases, people are travelling to America for treatment that is funded by means of GoFundMe. When are we going to cop on to ourselves and initiate an early access scheme similar to those that obtain right across the EU? It is consistently said that we are laggards. We know this, but we continue to bury our heads in the sand. I ask for early access for these people now.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue again and for acknowledging Deputy's Aird's interest and work in this area as well. I am very sorry to hear of those extraordinarily painful, difficult and sad situations regarding children. I will seek an urgent update from the Minister on the specific drug and the condition to which it relates and on the Deputy's broader point regarding early access.

I am taken by the point the Deputy made in respect of the process, particularly as, quite frankly we are now in a vastly different situation, from a funding point of view, in relation to new drugs than we were when I was Minister for Health. The drugs budget now is €4 billion a year-----

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Half a per cent goes to rare diseases.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I take that point too. I think €1 in every €8 in the health budget is now spent on drugs. The Deputy's particular point about rare diseases and the need for Ireland to significantly up its game in terms of an early access programme is serious and sincere. I will ask the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, to come back to him directly. Considering that this matter comes up too often in the House, perhaps we could facilitate time for a proper detailed debate on it in order to hear everyone's ideas.

Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to raise two issues regarding the housing assistance payment, HAP, in the context of constituents in Dublin Bay North. The first is HAP discrimination. Is the Tánaiste aware of cases of landlords refusing to take tenants who are on HAP? While this practice is illegal, it is still happening routinely across Dublin Bay North. The other issue is the thresholds that apply. Constituents are being refused HAP support on the basis of their average net income over 12 months. If you lose your job or face a financial crisis, your income falls off a cliff but you are still assessed on the average of the previous 12 months. It is unfair and does not reflect the reality of the situation for those people.

What can we do to better help people who experience sudden and devastating changes to their lives to access those HAP supports? What can we do to deal with those landlords who are refusing access?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue with the housing assistance payment. As he rightly says, the law is clear about people not being able to refuse a tenant on the basis of HAP. He is also right to highlight the fact that there are sometimes people trying to skirt the law in this regard. I will bring those comments to the attention of the Minister for housing. The second issue he raised about rent limits is important and I am pleased to tell him the Department has now undertaken a review of all the existing HAP rent limits to ensure there is sufficient support under the HAP scheme to assist eligible households to access accommodation in the private rental sector. It is intended that the review process will conclude before the end of quarter 2, so this summer. We will have an opportunity to consider what to do about reviewing rent limits at that point.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North-West, Sinn Fein)
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Dublin City Council's financial contribution scheme allows homeowners over 60 to sell their home to the local authority in return for making a financial contribution to the council, which then provides senior citizen accommodation to the homeowners. Dublin City Council has been told by the Minister that there is no funding available for this scheme. There are a number of people on a waiting list who wish to avail of this scheme, which can also deliver badly needed housing to the community. Are there any plans to resume funding of this much-needed scheme?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue about the financial contribution scheme and Dublin City Council's view that it requires funding for it. Truthfully, I am not sure of the next steps but on foot of the Deputy raising it, I will speak with the Minister, Deputy Browne, and ask him to come back to the Deputy directly.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The Tánaiste referenced the voice of children, and I want to speak on behalf of two children in Ballymun, aged 11 and 6, who this week came across a discarded loaded firearm, discarded by gangland criminals. Like any children who come across a gun, they fired that gun. It is scary to think how close we came to a tragic accident. Ballymun is a fantastic community but for several months it has experienced significant gangland events. A number of firearms have been discharged since December and last year a man was murdered by a speeding car. It is an extraordinary community, and fantastic work is being done on the ground. I acknowledge the work being done by John Costello with the implementation board. However, we need to ensure this incident is discussed at Cabinet level. These people are undermining the State and are using guns to do that. We need an emergency response to them. Lots of communities want more gardaí. My community needs more gardaí. When gardaí are allocated later this month, we want to see more in the Dublin north region.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising an issue that I know has been harrowing for his community and constituency this week. On a human level, there is the trauma and loss of childhood innocence for an 11 year old and the other child the Deputy rightly referenced. For that child to come across and fire a gun, it is but for the grace of God that nobody was seriously injured. That is not to take away from the trauma and the real shock and fear it has caused in the community. I will ensure this is discussed across Government, and I know it will be. Our colleague, the Minister for justice, is keeping in close contact with An Garda Síochána. I know there is an active investigation. I take the broader point about Garda numbers and resources. I can point to some positivity in the Deputy's area in the past while but I will speak to the Minister and ask that he liaise with the Commissioner. We must then support the Ballymun implementation group to do its work. We have invested a lot in setting up that structure and bringing partners together around the table. Perhaps now might be a timely opportunity for the Government to take stock with that group about what it believes should be the next steps. I am happy to discuss that.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the students and teachers from Confey College. I was on the board for ten years.

Today I raise a fundamental local issue in Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth where we had another water outage this week. We have had a number of water outages affecting over 10,000 houses and 25,000 people. Indeed, the students in the Gallery, along with those in other schools, were not able to go to school on Monday because of the outages. This year we had outages on 24 February, 3 April and 27 April combined with six or seven last year and the previous year. I have raised it as a councillor and as a TD and I take the opportunity to raise it again today. Unfortunately, this impacts the most vulnerable in our society, including the oldest and the youngest people and our businesses. I was in contact with one business that only opened six months ago and has had to close for five days. We have given significant money to Uisce Éireann. We need to build houses but we also need to look after those people who have houses and ensure they have the vital infrastructure.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I join with Deputy Neville in welcoming the students from Confey College. Before I get to the seriousness of the water burst, if you got a day off school for that and a day in the Dáil, it is not a bad week, and there is a bank holiday on Monday. They are welcome and it is great to have them in Leinster House.

The point my colleague and friend, Deputy Neville, makes is a serious one. I know it is one he has been campaigning on and highlighting for quite a while. We have rightly resourced Uisce Éireann to a significant degree. It is now important that it engages with communities to come up with solutions. I know it is committed to solving and replacing the necessary section of the mains water network that the Deputy has highlighted and there is now a funded capital project in place to address that issue. I am told the project is at design stage and that it is a somewhat of a complex design process owing to the challenges in reinforcing an existing pipe or routing a replacement given the congested nature of the route. It obviously needs to do this while trying to maintain capacity to meet present and future demand. A number of solutions are being investigated but in the interim, immediate steps have been taken to respond to bursts in the area and to try to manage supply interruptions. On foot of the Deputy raising this today, I will ask that Uisce Éireann come back to him directly.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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I raise an important issue in my constituency. I have been contacted by principals in two of the main schools in my area, namely, St. Aidan's primary school and St. Senan's primary school in Enniscorthy. St. Aidan's school has 861 pupils and St. Senan's has 435 pupils, operating seven special classes and four special classes, respectively. Both schools have expressed utter dissatisfaction at the unprofessional conduct of the NCSE. Both St. Aidan's and St. Senan's primary schools sought a review and asked for the rationale of the decision prior to their appeal as advised and advocated by the NCSE. They have both contacted the NCSE on numerous occasions for clarification of the rationale behind its initial decisions. Without this information, neither school can support a comprehensive and accurate detailed account to back their appeals. I ask the Tánaiste to contact the CEO and the head of inclusion support services of the NCSE to supply St. Aidan's and St. Senan's primary schools with the requested rationale behind its allocation of SNAs to both schools.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of St. Aidan's and St. Senan's. I thank them for all they do to meet the needs of the young people of the community and people with additional needs in Enniscorthy. I also acknowledge that for them to be able to do that in the way they want, and the way people expect them to do it, we need to work with them to support them. On foot of the Deputy raising this, I will ask that the Minister, Deputy Naughton, speak to the NCSE and that it or the Minister make direct contact with him to follow up.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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Last Friday Poland announced that it will file a complaint against the EU-Mercosur trade deal at the Court of Justice of the European Union. As I understand it, this is the first member state to take this step. This follows the European Parliament's earlier referral, which I welcomed as a rare victory for common sense and prudence. Irish beef farmers have been warning for years that this agreement threatens their livelihoods, our food standards and our national interest. Yet, Government opposition has too often looked like political damage limitation rather than principled action. Today I call on the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach and the Minister for foreign affairs to follow Poland's lead immediately and lodge Ireland's own challenge today at the ECJ and use every legal and diplomatic lever available to protect our primary producers before provisional application begins on 1 May. Our farmers cannot afford another EU deal that puts free trade above food security and food standards.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. I make the broad point that this country, including Irish farmers, benefits hugely from free trade. Most of what we produce in this country in the agrifood sector is sold abroad. We are a better and more prosperous nation, and farmers are better and more prosperous, as a result of free trade. However, we had specific concerns about Mercosur because level playing fields, common application of standards and environmental issues matter too. That is why we did not vote in favour of the Mercosur deal and agreement. I know the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade was in Poland this week meeting her counterpart. I will seek an update from her as to whether they discussed the issue of Mercosur and whether there are any plans for us to take further action.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
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I raise with the Tánaiste Loreto College in Swords, a State school that was not included in the roll-out of 105 new projects to progress to tender or construction earlier this year.

This omission is not without its immediate consequences. Existing students and staff will continue to work and learn in overcrowded conditions. Most pertinently, up to 16 girls will be unable to take part in transition year during the upcoming academic year. Transition year is crucial in the context of people's educational and personal development. I know that from personal experience many years ago. Every opportunity must be taken to support this school, these families and these girls. Will the Department make direct contact with the school with a view to resolving this crisis and finding a solution? The school feels let down by the Department and the parents feel let down by the school. Ultimately these girls will be let down if they are not allowed take part in transition year and are obliged to go straight to senior cycle.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On foot of the Deputy raising this matter in relation to Loreto College Swords, I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and ask that she engage with the Deputy directly to see if a solution can be found. On education capital more broadly, I would say that the list is not the final word from Government. There will be further allocations made in the time ahead in relation to building more school projects. That is really important. The Deputy's point is that in the here and now, 16 young women cannot access transition year. Let us see if a solution can be found. I presume that if people work together it can be found, but I will ask the Department to engage and the Minister to come back to the Deputy.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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There is a crisis of community safety in Ballymun in my constituency. This week, an 11-year-old boy found a gun with live ammunition in a public space and discharged it. It is a miracle that a child was not killed or injured. This must be a watershed moment for Ballymun. What happened is utterly unacceptable. I have been consistently raising ongoing community safety issues and the need for increased visibility of gardaí in Ballymun directly with the Minister for justice in the Dáil. He committed that he would act and would fund the Ballymun Implementation Board. However, the reality is that people in the community are scared to let their children out to play. They are being intimidated. This was not an isolated incident.

Five years ago, the Montague report set out a clear plant to tackle the issues of antisocial behaviour and crime via an increase in the number of gardaí and by means of early intervention. However, the recommendation in this regard has still not been implemented. Will the Government give the Ballymun Implementation Board sufficient funding? There is a threat of the board being wound down. That is what has been expressed. It needs sufficient funding to expand and do its work. Will the Government commit to new initiatives on Garda visibility being rolled out in the coming weeks and months in order to ensure nothing else happens and increased funding for early intervention, local community services and the implementation of the Montague report?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Hearne for raising this issue in relation to Ballymun and the absolute horror his community experienced this week when that young child found and discharged a gun. As the Deputy quite rightly said, it is a miracle nobody was seriously harmed or even worse. I take his point that this is not an isolated incident and that there are broader issues in respect of community safety in Ballymun. Similar to my response to Deputy McAuliffe, I assure the Deputy that I will speak with the Minister for justice on this. The Ballymun Implementation Board, from what I can see, is doing very good work, so there is a need for us to further support it. I am very open to facilitating conversations in that regard. It is not for me to tell anyone their business, but perhaps, in the first instance, the Deputies in the constituency could come together and meet the Ballymun Implementation Board and then meet the relevant Ministers to discuss how we can take this forward.

Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I want to raise the ongoing works by Uisce Éireann or its agents at James Larkin Road. These works are causing severe disruption to residents of Raheny, Kilbarrack, Bayside, Howth and Sutton. Tailbacks on the road are a mile long and, most frustratingly, residents are seeing little or no activity on the site of the works. They regularly report to me that there is plant and equipment lying idle on the site and that these vehicles are parked along vast tracts of the James Larkin Road. Along with some of my Oireachtas colleagues, I put various suggestions to Uisce Éireann, including a tidal flow on the road, but nothing seems to have been accepted or worked on by the company. It is not acceptable that residents in the areas to which I refer are being completely held to ransom by contractors that do not seem to be working with any sense of urgency or of the inconvenience they are causing to the very people who are funding their activities. We all accept that the works are necessary, but Uisce Éireann needs to react.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Brabazon for raising this significant issue of annoyance, concern and inconvenience for his constituents on the James Larkin Road and in the surrounding areas. As he says, all of us and our communities expect some degree of disruption when works have to be carried out. However, we also expect that these works will be completed in a timely manner and that there will be an awareness and an understanding on the part of those charged with carrying them out on behalf of the taxpayer that they would be done expeditiously. On foot of the Deputy raising the matter, I will speak to the relevant Minister and ask that he make contact directly with Uisce Éireann and encourages it to come back to the Deputy directly to see if this can be speeded up.

John Clendennen (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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In the first instance, I want to acknowledge the commitment of the Government to the local improvement scheme, LIS, which has made a real difference to the lives of rural dwellers since its reintroduction in 2017. This is a really important scheme for households, farmers and community amenities in the context of the maintenance and enhancement of access. The funding provided is not meeting the level of demand, however. Following a recent meeting with the area engineer in the Birr municipal district, Brian Keenaghan, I learned that there is a 12-year waiting list. These are applicants who will never benefit from public lighting or roads, but they need this. They are rural people who are willing to make a contribution and who are willing to pay in relation to this scheme. I ask that the Government to consider the provision of supplementary funding for areas where there are long waiting lists. A 12-year waiting list is simply unacceptable.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Clendennen is absolutely right. I love the local improvement scheme. It works really well. It makes a real difference to rural communities. As he said, people in rural communities who are always looking to get on and help themselves but sometimes are looking for just a little support as well. It is also clear that people like the LIS, and that is why there has been such a demand. We have seen that across the Deputy's county in places like Birr in the context of the carrying out of works on non-public roads that are not normally maintained by local authorities at all. Since 2020, Offaly County Council has been allocated more than €4.5 million in LIS funding.

I have discussed this issue with the Minister, Deputy Calleary, who has responsibility for this. He has confirmed that during the course of the year, spending trends across the Department will be monitored and that it will look to reallocate any savings which may arise to schemes such as the local improvement scheme. I am hoping that there may progress on that throughout the course of the year whereby if we see that there is an underspend in one area, we can reallocate the money to an area like County Offaly where there is acute demand. I will keep in touch with the Deputy on this.

Ann Graves (Dublin Fingal East, Sinn Fein)
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The Government has to deal with the crisis relating to school places in Fingal East. What is happening is very serious. I have a 13-year-old boy who is non-verbal and who has ASD. He is meant to be starting first year. His mother is a single parent and she will be forced to give up her job if she cannot get a place for him in September. In Loreto College Swords, 16 have been left without places for transition year. Their parents are at their wits' end. This is causing serious upset and anxiety for the girls in question. In Portmarnock, there is a serious shortage of school places, particularly in St. Marnock’s primary school. Hundreds of houses have been built, which is welcome, but the number of school places does not match the demand that exists. There is an urgent need for expansion of capacity in the school. The Minister sent a standard reply to parents which stated that the demand for primary school places has reduced in recent years and is projected to continue to reduce, but this is not true. The Department indicated that it reviewed demand based on child benefit statements in 2025, but that is clearly not the case because the evidence needed would be there in black and white. We need to do something serious, particularly in light of the growth happening in the area.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am conscious that Fingal East has one of the youngest populations in the country and is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. We are seeing more houses being built and more people moving in, and they require school places. Sometimes the Department of education can be right on the macro and wrong on the micro. It needs to take a look again at specific parts of the country, including the Deputy's, where there is acute need. We made a significant additional allocation of €668 million to the Department of education about a week or two ago. That was a recognition there is going to be a need for capacity in the school system from this September, most particularly in relation to special educational needs and the provision of additional classes. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to come back to the Deputy on the specific areas of her constituency to which she referred.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Over the weekend, the Tánaiste stated that the Government is exploring one-off payments towards environmentally-friendly measures such as heat pumps and efficient cars. I welcome that the Government is looking at how it can support householders more. My worry is by floating for potential of new grants without a timeline, there is some risk people will defer big decisions on new EVs or heat pumps until there is clarity. One comment on my social media was as follows: "Yep, we were about to pull the trigger on a heat pump; now not sure if we should wait or not". I also asked the Taoiseach about this matter during Questions on Policy and Legislation yesterday but I was not much clearer about it afterwards. There is confusion out there. Will the Tánaiste give as much clarity as he can right now? Is a scheme for more financial support for heat pumps and EVs on the way imminently?

Will the Tánaiste give us as close to a "Yes" or "No" answer on that because there are people waiting on that clarity in terms of big investment decisions they make in their own households?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The answer is that I am hoping we can do more on measures in the budget to help people adapt, and I am hoping we can do more in each budget that comes thereafter. The budget is 6 October. I know the Deputy does not need to be told this, but the point I was trying to make is that we should not reduce the conversation in here to just about a cash support right now if there are actually other things we can do that would have greater benefit for people's households. We have made a lot of changes already this year. We are seeing the numbers significantly up and we are seeing huge demand even this week in people accessing and seeking to access these schemes. I am just making the point that not just in Ireland, but also in Europe, we are going to need to continue to explore what more we can do to get away from fossil fuels beyond the conversation about how we subsidise the paying for fossil fuels.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Before we conclude our business, I want to join with the Members who expressed their good wishes to Brigid McGlynn and to wish her well in her retirement. Anyone who knows Brigid knows her as an extremely hard-working member of staff of this House. I am sure that the vast amount of knowledge and experience that she has over all of her years of service will be missed when she goes into retirement. She is a very pleasant person, hard working and dedicated. I wish her the very best on her last day here and for the future in her retirement with her family.

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