Written answers
Wednesday, 24 September 2025
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Trade Relations
1. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the way in which tariffs influence Ireland’s trade relationship with the United States, particularly in terms of exports and imports;...
- EU Presidency
2. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the progress of plans for the management of the EU Presidency in 2026; if decisions to host events outside Dublin have been made; if so, the...
- Diplomatic Representation
3. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the budget allocation to the Irish embassies based in Seoul, Wellington, Rabat, Pretoria and Tokyo in 2024 and 2025, in tabular form. [50638/25]
- Department of Defence
- National Security
4. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence whether he has been briefed on the potential threats to national security posed by the sale of location data which can then be used to track...
- Air Corps
6. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if the new aircraft have come into the Air Corps fleet; and when these aircraft will be ready for operational duties. [50646/25]
- Defence Forces
7. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the nature of refurbishment works that were carried out at Aiken Barracks, Dundalk in 2024 and to-date in 2025; if any of these capital works...
- Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
- Seirbhísí trí Ghaeilge
8. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport maidir le líon na dtiománaithe foghlama i gContae Phort Láirge atá ar liosta chun a dtástálacha a...
- Bus Services
13. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will review matters raised in correspondence (details supplied); if a proposed bus stop could be introduced; and if he will make a...
- Driver Licences
14. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the rationale for the proposed changes to driving learner permits (details supplied; if there is evidence that points to the benefit of...
- Public Transport
15. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount of Leap card fare revenue collected in each year since 2022 across all TFI services, in tabular form. [50637/25]
- Rail Network
16. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to carry out a double-tracking improvement along the East coast Greystones to Wexford rail line; if he will confirm media...
- Air Navigation Orders
17. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to examine overflights of Ireland of munitions to Israel without authorisation; and when this examination commenced and will be completed....
- Road Network
18. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will set aside €10 million in each of the next four Budgets to go towards the northern extension of the Kilkenny ring road...
- Road Projects
19. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide an update on the approval by TII of the funding for all of the proposed interim works required on the N24/25; and the details...
- Bus Services
20. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the progress on the extension of the existing bus routes in Kilkenny city to include new housing estates, businesses and schools located...
- Road Network
21. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to urgently address the dangerous junction on the N22 Killarney-Cork road at the turn-off for Kilgarvan at Loo Bridge, County Kerry; and...
- Transport Infrastructure Ireland
22. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the way in which his Department is working with other agencies to improve transport infrastructure in County Meath, in view of the fact...
- Department of Finance
- Tax Code
23. To ask the Minister for Finance if serious consideration will be given to removing VAT on counselling and psychotherapy services to support professionals in the industry and persons who...
- Tax Reliefs
24. To ask the Minister for Finance to confirm that tax relief will be made available on counselling and psychotherapy fees, thereby establishing parity with other healthcare expenses; and if he...
- Trade Relations
25. To ask the Minister for Finance to provide an estimate of the number of jobs in Ireland that may be at risk due to the 15% tariff imposed by the United States on EU goods; the measures being...
- Tax Reliefs
26. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will consider a review of the criteria needed in order to obtain a primary medical certificate (PMC) set out under s 36(b)(ii) of the Finance Act 2020;...
- Banking Sector
27. To ask the Minister for Finance following the lifting of the €500,000 executive pay cap at Bank of Ireland, AIB, and PTSB, the current level of remuneration for CEOs at each...
- Official Engagements
28. To ask the Minister for Finance if the Minister of State within his Department met with a person (details supplied) during his recent visit to New York. [50632/25]
- Tax Data
29. To ask the Minister for Finance the total carryover cost in 2026 of taxation measures implemented in Budget 2025; the breakdown of the individual cost of each, in tabular form; and if he will...
- Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
- An Garda Síochána
31. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform The progress that has been achieved to date on the new Garda dog training centre; and when this project will move to the next phase....
- Ethics in Public Office
32. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to reform the Ethics in Public Office legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50533/25]
- Office of Public Works
33. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the OPW will examine the case for the clearing of a stream (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50704/25]
- Departmental Funding
34. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the proposals for further investment in an amenity (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50817/25]
- Tax Data
35. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the total carryover cost in 2026 of spending measures implemented in Budget 2025; the breakdown of the individual cost of each if...
- Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
- Work Permits
39. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will urgently revise the critical skills occupations list that his Department uses to determine applications for critical skills...
- Enterprise Policy
40. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department and/or agencies under its auspices had any engagement with a company (details supplied) with regard to plans it has...
- Tourism Policy
46. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if consideration has been given to developing County Meath’s tourism trade as a stronger employment field given the...
- Wage-setting Mechanisms
48. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the actions that have been undertaken to implement the Adequate Minimum Wages Directive and to publish a National Action Plan on the...
- Tourism Promotion
49. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment given the ongoing geopolitical instability, if consideration will be given to significantly increasing funding for tourism agencies to...
- Trade Relations
50. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to outline the Government's long-term strategy to diversify trade partnerships and reduce reliance on any single market in view of the...
- Export Controls
51. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number and value of successful dual-use export licence applications; and the number of refused applications, by quarter since...
- Work Permits
52. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of work permit applications for the homecare sector received since the scheme opened in January 2023; the number of work...
- Department of Education and Skills
- Education Policy
53. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to confirm that further investments will be made and strategies developed in the area of school counselling, particularly in the areas of...
- Schools Building Projects
54. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on the building of a new school at a location (details supplied); when it will go to tender in view of the fact it was granted...
- Teaching Qualifications
57. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will reinstate the special education diploma allowance that was passed at congress (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on...
- School Accommodation
58. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the additional accommodation application submitted by a school (details supplied); the reason for the delay in...
- School Enrolments
59. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if it is possible to create a single enrolment policy for the schools in Fingal, based on either catchment area or feeder school system as in the...
- School Equipment
60. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the options available to a school to apply for funding for an outdoor play area and equipment for children with specific, complex additional...
- School Staff
61. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teaching posts at primary level that were unfilled in the Dublin area, 2024/2025 school year; the number of teaching days where no...
- Schools Building Projects
62. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills f the tender process has concluded at a school (details supplied); if so, if sufficient qualifying contractors were identified; if the evaluation...
- Special Educational Needs
63. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students with special needs without school places, by county, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50705/25]
- School Accommodation
65. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she examine the case for extra accommodation raised in correspondence (details supplied); if she will provide an update on this application;...
- School Transport
66. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of a school bus ticket application (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50712/25]
- Special Educational Needs
68. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of sanctioned autism classes in Dublin bay north as of September 2025; her plans to open additional sanctioned autism classes; the...
- School Management
70. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if consideration will be given to changing the date of return for all schools from summer holidays to the beginning of September as such a move...
- School Transport
71. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a school transport route has been sanctioned (details supplied); if she is aware the service is not being provided; the reason for delay; when...
- Schools Building Projects
72. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason construction works of the new school building at a school (details supplied) is currently paused; when she expects construction to...
- Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
- Broadband Infrastructure
75. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way in which his Department is working with other agencies to improve broadband in County Meath, in view of the fact...
- Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government
- Invasive Species Policy
76. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is aware of the harm to the environment caused by the Asian hornet; and if he will instruct his Department to investigate...
- Planning Issues
77. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will outline the policy position in relation to planning permission for farmers, and arming families who wish to build a...
- Rental Sector
78. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the measures that are in place to stop any landlords raising management charges to effectively raise the rent of their tenants...
- Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection
- Community Welfare Services
79. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will overhaul the modus operandi of community welfare officers in order that they revert to holding assistance clinics...
- School Meals Programme
80. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if his Department has any metrics for tracking wastage in the hot school meals programme; and if he will make a statement on...
- Social Welfare Benefits
83. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the recipients of the fuel allowance, by county, in tabular form; his plans to expand the scheme; and if he will make a...
- Pension Provisions
84. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the planned auto-enrolment retirement savings scheme will be designed to favour environmental and socially ethical...
- Departmental Schemes
85. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of employers that have availed of the wage subsidy scheme for the years 2020 to 2025 respectively; the number of...
- Employment Support Services
87. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of people who have availed of the Work Placement Experience Programme for the years 2020-2025; the benefits that...
- Social Welfare Benefits
90. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of people in receipt of partial capacity benefit for the years 2020-2025; and if he will make a statement on the...
- Social Welfare Eligibility
92. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason job sharing teachers who apply for carer's benefit are being refused as they are deemed not to work enough hours,...
- Social Welfare Benefits
93. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the dental benefits a person in receipt of carer’s allowance or carer’s benefit can avail of; whether his...
- Social Welfare Code
94. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost in 2026, if the maximum rate of disability allowance were increased to €258.50 per week; if the...
- Department of Justice and Equality
- Data Protection
97. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to introduce emergency legislation to urgently address data collection issues (details supplied); and if he will make a...
- Legal Aid
98. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will consider increasing the free legal aid eligibility allowance for mortgage and rent to a figure the reflects current...
- Domestic Violence
102. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will address the issue of cross-border protection for victims of domestic abuse, where Irish safety orders do not extend...
- International Protection
103. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to provide details of all individuals, community groups, elected representatives, NGOs, or other stakeholders met by his...
- An Garda Síochána
115. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of vehicles seized by Gardai in each district within Dublin region for having no insurance in each of the first...
- International Protection
118. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality whether his Department has plans for an IPAS centre in a facility (details supplied). [50699/25]
- Prison Service
122. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the status of the independent external review of the chaplaincy service within the Irish Prison Service; the timeframe for the...
- An Garda Síochána
123. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of Gardaí, by rank attached to Louth/Cavan and Monaghan divisional roads policing unit as of 17 September 2025,...
- Citizenship Applications
124. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of paper applications for naturalisation by Irish association received by his Department in each of the years 2017...
- International Protection
126. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to list the community groups, elected representatives, NGOs or other stakeholders with whom his Department’s community...
- Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
- Animal Welfare
143. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to publish the sanction letter and conditions attached to the €200,000 advance payment made to an organisation (details...
- Department of Children, Disability and Equality
- Disability Services
151. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she intends to allocate funding in Budget 2026 for a community neurorehabilitation team for North Dublin, in line with the...
- Legislative Measures
153. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will provide an update on the childcare (amendment) Bill; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50531/25]
- Children in Care
155. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to support pre budget submission of an organisation (details supplied); to support foster families who open their homes and hearts...
- Childcare Services
156. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the options available to parents whose creche or preschool provider does not allow for part time attendance, and so charge parents...
- Child and Family Agency
157. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she is satisfied with the level of service TUSLA is providing for the protection of children; if Tusla will be hiring more staff...
- Childcare Services
158. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the reason a child with a disability who attends a childcare setting under the NCS is being penalised by a reduction in NCS...
- Early Childhood Care and Education
160. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will urgently address the ongoing disparity in pay, entitlements, and working conditions between early childhood educators...
- Department of Health
- Medical Aids and Appliances
161. To ask the Minister for Health if she will review the current policy on the provision and financial support for hearing aids, in view of the case of a person who has had severe hearing loss...
- Mental Health Services
162. To ask the Minister for Health the details of the actions being taken to raise the level of psychotherapy standards and criteria; the level with which she and her Department have engaged...
- Health Services
163. To ask the Minister for Health to confirm that a person (details supplied) with an aggressive form of leukaemia, can be permitted to receive Car T-cell therapy; if it will be reimbursed in...
- Legislative Measures
164. To ask the Minister for Health the timeline for bringing forward the Health (Adult Safeguarding) Bill 2024; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50534/25]
- Hospital Waiting Lists
165. To ask the Minister for Health the number of public patients from 2021 to 2025 on waiting lists in Cork University Hospital who have received care via insourcing activity; the extent to...
- Ambulance Service
166. To ask the Minister for Health her views regarding the national ambulance service being under-resourced in terms of the low number of ambulances in its fleet and a lack of paramedics to give...
- Health Strategies
168. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 378 of 22 May 2025, the status of the long-awaited National Endometriosis Framework; the timeline being worked towards in...
- Health Services Staff
169. To ask the Minister for Health if she intends to introduce advanced practice posts for medical scientists; the work carried out to date to progress this role under the HSCP Advanced Practice...
- Healthcare Policy
170. To ask the Minister for Health if she intends to establish a national biobank office and introduce primary biobanking legislation, as recommended by the Irish Health Research Forum in 2023;...
- Legislative Measures
171. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the national research ethics bill, approved by Government in 2019; to expand on the comment “work is ongoing”, as per the Autumn...
- Departmental Schemes
172. To ask the Minister for Health to provide further details as to her instruction to her officials to engage with concerns related to the exclusion of transgender people from the free HRT...
- Health Services
173. To ask the Minister for Health the number of locations and practitioners that publicly provide frenotomy services for babies with tongue tie issues. [50642/25]
- Hospital Staff
174. To ask the Minister for Health the staffing budget allocation to National Rehabilitation Hospital in 2023, 2024 and 2025, in tabular form. [50643/25]
- Health Services
175. To ask the Minister for Health the full year cost to offer every woman aged over 65 years a DEXA scan as part of their life-course management programme delivered through their GP. [50644/25]
- Primary Care Centres
176. To ask the Minister for Health if each rehab gym within primary care centres in CHO9 allows users to use these surgeries at pre-surgery or post-surgery periods; and the opening hours of each...
- Health Services
177. To ask the Minister for Health if the case of a person (details supplied) will be examined; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50650/25]
- Cancer Services
179. To ask the Minister for Health the timeline for the NSAC work to consider the further expansion of the cancer screening programmes; when the BreastCheck and BowelScreen programmes will be...
- Industrial Disputes
180. To ask the Minister for Health to review a link and details within same and provide an update on this impending dispute (details supplied); the steps her Department is taking to resolve this...
- Health Services Staff
181. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that there is no dietician in County Kerry (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter....
- Health Services Waiting Lists
184. To ask the Minister for Health to provide an update on waiting times for cardiac rehabilitation programmes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50727/25]
- Hospital Staff
186. To ask the Minister for Health the number of WTE consultant cardiologist and cardiology registrars attached to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in 2024 and to-date in 2025, in tabular form; and...
- Health Services
189. To ask the Minister for Health if screening will be introduced for spinal muscular atrophy (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50743/25]
- Medicinal Products
194. To ask the Minister for Health the reason a medication (details supplied), which is used in the treatment of severe allergies, is not currently covered under the medical card scheme or the...
- Hospital Services
196. To ask the Minister for Health to provide an update on the delivery of the long delayed, joint centre of excellence for diabetes care at Sligo University Hospital and Letterkenny University...
- Dental Services
197. To ask the Minister for Health to outline the proposals to provide orthodontic services for children in Cavan and Monaghan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50842/25]
- Department of Education and Skills
- Student Accommodation
198. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the purpose built student complexes that are now additionally charging for utilities on top of rent; if he is aware that this is becoming...
- Apprenticeship Programmes
206. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current number of first year, second year, third year, and fourth year apprentices who have completed the required on-the-job training for...
