This is one of my great areas of interest in terms of advocacy, insofar as a politician can advocate on anything, and it has been since my party was in opposition. I want to focus on some of the things I believe have improved but I also believe we have stalled a little bit, that we need to do much more and that we are facing a crisis. A case that has stuck in my memory is that of a parent who had more than one child with autism and who made a daily journey, starting at 6 a.m. or 6.30 a.m., to transport one child to…

I thank Deputy Naughten. I apologise again for bypassing him earlier.

I ask the Taoiseach to take the time to acknowledge the Trojan work being undertaken on behalf of the State at the City West Hotel by volunteers from the South Dublin County Volunteer Centre and by staff from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, among others. Given that our Fianna Fáil party colleagues, Billy Kelleher, MEP, and Senator Dooley, paid visits to Ukraine in recent months, could the Taoiseach outline whether the Government or any of its representatives have similar pla…

It was addressed in 2016.

My question concerns the number of outstanding passport applications from Dublin and the planning carried out to ensure that there is no repeat of the delays with applications experienced in 2021.

I appreciate the Minister's reply and I want to acknowledge the sterling work being done by officials in the Department, under immense pressure, to deal with the conveyor belt of applications coming in. The Minister referred to 88,000 first-time applications this year, which is a pretty phenomenal figure. The fact that 400,000 passport applications have been made in the year to date when the total for the whole of last year was 650,000 is also highly significant. I particularly welcome the fact that the Department …

I have a list, just from today, of criticisms, the main one being that the facility is simply unavailable. Again, I appreciate the pressure staff and officials are under but I ask the Minister to address that matter too.

I want to ask the Minister of State the proportion of the annual tourism budget which is spent on research and development of the tourism product.

I remember asking this question in 2017 when I was spokesperson on Dublin. Tourism is an invisible export that must be worth billions. It has always concerned me to think that Fáilte Ireland, the tourism agency body, spends so little on research into tourism. It spent €2.6 million in 2021, which is risible. I imagine the research budgets for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and its agencies; Enterprise Ireland; the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; and science are multiples of this a…

While this is not a criticism and the Minister of State is an esteemed colleague, €2.6 million is a very small budget that would build three special needs classrooms. The Minister of State will have heard me speak about the following things before. I would love to see research into how we can replicate Culture Night in Dublin. It is one night per year and yet it absolutely transforms the city. One rarely sees families in Dublin but on Culture Night, the city is populated with families. We have many art galleries bu…

I am thankful for the opportunity to contribute to these statements on the Government's response to those fleeing Ukraine. I wish the Ceann Comhairle and Cathaoirleach of the Seanad well in their forthcoming address to the Ukrainian Parliament. I am aware that they will carry the best wishes and heartfelt concern of the Irish people to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. Having listened to other speakers, I believe it is interesting that there has not been a word of criticism of the Government's approach in respons…

I have to take a sledgehammer to the debate at this point because the time is up.

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37A and the name of the Member in each case: (1) Deputy Catherine Connolly - to discuss the need for information on the 2022 July provision programme for children with special needs; (2) Deputy Pauline Tully - to discuss respite services in Cavan-Monaghan; (3) Deputy Verona Murphy - to discuss the situation evolving in the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, in south Wexford; and (4) De…

The Minister of State to reply.

The Deputy did, and a little extra.

You still have time left.

Yes. I was just flagging that.

It is still two minutes.

I am just flagging your time, Deputy.

You should be used to it.