I welcome the Minister to the House. I also thank her for the briefing note. As Deputy Kerrane said, it has been very helpful to us in preparing our few words tonight. I want us all to go back to the previous debate and our discussion of the accommodation recognition payment. I again put on record our thanks for that payment and state how helpful it has been to the Ukrainian community in helping them integrate into the many communities they are in. I look forward to working with the Minister and the Department of J…

Not a single day goes by on which this Government does not break the law regarding the statutory timeline under the Disability Act for an assessment of need. In a previous Commencement matter with the then Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte, she described it as "Groundhog Day" and "as bad as it can get". Unfortunately, it has got worse since then. Now, over 1,500 children in my area of Kildare are waiting for an assessment, where we have the second highest number of children who are overdue an assessment. Nearly 1,70…

I acknowledge the young lady who has brought the entire Opposition together on this very important motion. I met Cara Darmody for the first time in November 2022, when I was a member of the first all-party autism Oireachtas committee. At just 11 years of age, Cara came in to give her testimony. She was the youngest ever person to give testimony at an Oireachtas committee. On the day, just a small number of us were in that committee room, including two members of a local support group from my hometown of Athy. Cara'…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion on behalf of the Labour Party. I thank Deputy Kerrane and her Sinn Féin colleagues for bringing it forward. Like many Deputies, I have been contacted by parents struggling to either find or afford a childcare place. I have also spoken to a number of providers in Kildare who are struggling either due to low funding or an inability to get staff. The current system of early years education and care is not working for anyone. It does not work for parents, providers or s…

I thank the Minister for the way she went about making arrangements for this debate. I also offer my condolences to her and her family. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Farrelly commission report on behalf of the Labour Party. At the heart of this scandal are two matters, namely Grace and other vulnerable children and how they were maliciously failed by the State and those employed to care for them. I pay tribute to lain Smith and, of course, Paula, the brave whistleblowers who made a protected disclosure …

Will the Minister update the House on the work his Department has carried out to date on designing a cost of disability payment, as outlined in the programme for Government, the expected date of such a payment and the amount involved?

As part of the work of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism, we had a number of presentations on the cost of disability to families. One of the most recent reports I have seen shows there is an additional €30,000 per annum cost for a family with a disability or a loved one with a disability. That is obviously substantial and causes hardship. A lot of that hardship is ongoing. The Minister mentioned temporary payments in the context of how they mask what is really going on behind the doors of those families who …

I thank the Minister. Reference has been made to the work programme for the social protection committee. I am sure, along with others in the House, that this is something that we would love to have included in the work programme. It is very important for many people when they are looking at an additional €30,000 that they have to scrape for to find. This is a substantial amount. This is an average that has been outlined in one of the most recent reports that I have seen. I look forward to engaging with the Minister…

I wish to ask the Minister the number of people who have been added to the family carers register under the long-term carers contribution scheme, the number that have been awarded the full-rate State pension, and the number that have been awarded a reduced rate.

I thank the Minister. We have spoken about this already today, as the Minister rightly said. It is encouraging to see the number of people who have been rewarded. We have spoke about women and their contribution. That is reflected in the numbers the Minister has presented. They are the ones that unfortunately had to stay at home in many cases to look after children. They get their due reward through this 20-year contribution that the Government has made. It is worthwhile and positive that we have the figures now so…

The Minister is 100% right. One of the main questions I get in my clinics when people come in to fill out applications for a State pension is about the qualifying contributions and so on. It is important that we all broadcast this and put it on our social media and everywhere else we can, as the figures are low. It is a start but we need to encourage more people to avail of it and to get their just reward for what they have done over those 20 years. I look forward to working with the Minister on that promotion and …

I thank my colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, for tabling this important motion. I thank and welcome all the parents and guardians who are in the Gallery today. If we cannot value the things that matter the most, like a right to education, how can we build a future for our children? Our Labour Party motion does exactly that. It highlights a right to education as a basic value of Irish society to truly deliver on the constitutional right of every child to an appropriate school place. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, in he…

I want to raise the recently announced figure of €325 million for the social housing second-hand acquisitions programme. My county of Kildare received €15 million under that programme and it is the tenant in situ part of the circular I want to talk to the Minister about. Kildare County Council has purchased 84 properties over the past year and that is obviously 84 families who have been kept out of homelessness. Unfortunately, under the circular the money the council has to allocate for those purchases must come fr…

All politics is indeed local. Not a week goes by without me using the Oireachtas line to make inquiries on behalf of the constituents I represent in Kildare South. Increasingly, the responses from that line have become much more frustrating. I am not sure where we are going with this particular utility, who is in charge and where the funding will come from. That is the first response to constituents or to me when I ring. The issue of funding is what is thrown at them first when they seek answers. I welcome the stat…

Talk to your leader.

I ask the Minister and Minister of State about the ongoing plans in the Department about the continuing challenges facing communities in rural areas such as the cost of and in accessing transport services. Are those plans are included in new future development for Our Rural Future, as presented by the Government? Will the Minister of State make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister of State for coming in today and for his kind words. I look forward to working with him as we did previously in the Seanad. I welcome that Deputy Buttimer is the new Minister of State with responsibility for rural transport, because one of the issues we discussed before was the M7, which was unfortunately a car park again this morning. I hope we can develop that idea. An Indecon report on rural transport was written in the past year. I believe it is with the Minister of State at the moment. I w…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I think it is important to mention a few Local Link services. The 883 service has been a game-changer for many people in my home town, Athy. It links them in and allows them to get employment in the likes of Kildare Village and Newbridge. It is a game-changer and it should be expanded. One of the issues is for the village of Nurney, which does not have a Sunday service, because that link has no Sunday service. That will be a game-changer for villages that have been isola…

I thank the Minister, Deputy Calleary, for his work on this Bill, and his officials for bringing it to us so quickly. It is very important to thank John O'Meara and his family for the work they have done. They have always kept the memory of Michelle to the forefront of their endeavours. They got the result they deserved, and which all the families they represented deserved, through the Supreme Court. I want to echo the calls from my colleague Deputy Alan Kelly that the Bill would be called after Michelle. This call…

Your own Minister did it.