I also asked about long-term illness.

You are over time, Senator.

Senator Kelleher is eating into the remaining time of his colleagues.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and congratulate him on his new role. I worked closely with him on the housing committee in his previous incarnation. I saw at first-hand the volume of work he got through. I have great expectations and hopes for him in his new role. The floor is his, with 15 minutes to respond to the debate.

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive response. It is evident that he engaged in great detail and with great enthusiasm with today's debate and we are seriously heartened by what we can expect from him in the lifetime of the Government.

Certainly. I thank the officials for attending. I call the Leader to respond. He has five minutes.

When is it proposed to sit again?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I echo the sentiments of several of my colleagues by requesting the presence of the Minister for housing as a matter of urgency. Housing was the stand-out issue during the term of the previous Government and will be again in the lifetime of the current Government. There are obviously outstanding issues. It was heartening this morning to hear positive numbers for the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which is gathering momentum. Donegal is the county with the highest take-up of the scheme. At a parliamentary party meeting, the …

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and wish him the very best in his new role. He will bring great energy and ambition to it, and will achieve great things. It is fair to say we have heard a very informed and well-rounded debate on the issue of crime. The overwhelming view right across the political divide is that the solution to crime is not one-dimensional but multifaceted. While the Department of Justice has to ultimately do the heavy lifting, there are many other components to this, including social services…

I would welcome the Minister for Health coming to the Chamber to discuss an expansion of the long-term illness scheme to include a number of lifelong and hereditary diseases. Specifically, I would like to look at Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, which can require multiple hospital stays, ongoing medication and treatment. I appreciate that some of the medications can be accessed through the drugs payment scheme but there is no recourse for recouping treatment therapy or specialist costs for those not eligible for a medical …

That was well timed.

Like many other speakers, I will reference the fallout from the storm. We have a large concentration of rural representatives in the House and it is only we who can really voice the anger in the aftermath of the storm about the unpreparedness. It manifested across the country. There is a lot of anger and annoyance, particularly among families of elderly people who were left isolated and of youngsters who were trying to study for exams and could not. The reality is that we will have these events and the catastrophic…

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an gCathaoirleach. He did excellent work in his last term and I am sure he will continue that in his role in this House. I heard several people from larger counties refer to how many Senators they have. Longford is one of the smallest counties in the country, but we have an unprecedented situation today where we have three Senators in the House. It is an extraordinary turnaround. I welcome Senator Joe Conway to the House. He is on loan to Waterford at the moment but he is originally from …

A very sensible man.

We are speaking a lot about taxation. I want to address the issue of capital gains tax retirement relief changes to be made under section 55 of the Finance Bill 2024. I welcome aspects of the changes, in particular the €10 million limit, which will not now come into effect until 1 January 2025. I would suggest, however, that a small number of changes could be made that would significantly improve the operation of this scheme. I ask that the Minister give consideration to the deferral. It should be rolled over where…

I have to raise the case of a Longford family in the midst of the deepest, darkest crisis at the moment. Over the last number of months their 16-year-old son Jacob has subjected his parents to unrelenting violence. He has wrecked the family home, wrecked the family car and in recent weeks his three siblings have been dispatched to relatives and friends for their own personal safety. I personally saw him attack his father at the weekend. His mother rang CAMHS again on Friday only to be told that this is not a mental…

Our retained firefighters came off the picket lines recently in anticipation of a decent financial resolution for their claim. They set great faith in our commitments to them, but it is fair to say that they are less than enthused by discussions at the WRC. As it stands, the offer to them is €750. That is a derisory amount; no more than €14 a week. I have met several retained firefighters in recent days. While the union has pitched the claim at €10,000 per annum, I feel there is a sweet spot of about €5,000, or €10…

In anticipation of a budget increase for the Department of Rural and Community Development, could we ensure that pay for staff in public participation networks, PPNs, is regularised? It would take just €1.5 million to bring PPN staff in line with their peers, such as community development partnership co-ordinators and sports partnership co-ordinators. In many cases, they are peers working in the same buildings but PPN staff are expected to work for reduced rates. Currently, the PPN support worker is a temporary gra…

It is expected to run a county-wide network. We need to support PPNs. They are in the front line of community development and support.