I will start with accountability in Irish Water. As the Minister knows, Members of the House have the right to ask parliamentary questions to various Ministers, including to him. If I want to help someone with a driving test, I can write a parliamentary question to the Minister for Transport, and he will refer it to the RSA. With regard to health, if I am trying to help someone on a waiting list for cataracts, I can write a parliamentary question for the Minister for Health, and she will refer it to the HSE. When I…

The Department of the Taoiseach's 2024 annual report states that 7,126 affordable homes were built, but none of those affordable homes was built in my constituency of north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny. I will give some examples of areas where we need housing. Towns like Nenagh, Thurles, Roscrea, Borrisokane, Ballina and Newport, Templemore, Borrisoleigh, Urlingford, Freshford, Toomyvara, Cloghjordan and Cappagh White are just examples of towns and villages across north Tipperary, mid-Tipperary, west Tipperary…

I am more interested in the food after the Pilates class. I welcome and support the Bill, which provides a registration framework for home support providers while making it an offence to operate a home support service without registration and incorporating transitional arrangements for existing home support providers. Home support providers will be required to adhere to a registration framework supported by national quality standards developed by HIQA and meet minimum requirements set out under ministerial regulati…

Access to sport is not a luxury, it is a right. Participation in sport delivers profound physical and mental health benefits, builds confidence, reduces isolation and strengthens community connection for people of all ages and abilities. For people with disabilities, inclusive access to sport can be life-changing, yet too many still face practical and financial barriers to participation. What efforts is the Minister undertaking to ensure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate in spor…

I acknowledge the positive work already under way. The sports capital programme has prioritised accessibility and universal design. Dormant accounts funding has supported disability-specific initiatives and training. Through local sports partnerships, Sport Ireland continues to play a key role in promoting inclusive support at community level. In my constituency, which comprises north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny, there is strong goodwill among clubs, volunteers and families to expand inclusive sporting opport…

A lot of the local clubs I have spoken to are very interested in getting more supports, more funding and more training for their coaches. I think about cases where a child in a family is involved in sport, for example, a soccer club, and there is also a child in the family with some form of disability. If the parents in that family are involved in the club, they will obviously want both of their children, or however many children they have, to have the same chance to be full active participants to the best of their…

The sports capital grants are an extremely important funding stream for many of the communities I represent in north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny. During the lifetime of the previous Government, two different funds were announced for clubs in my constituency. It is nearly two years since sports capital funding was last announced and allocated. Clubs are now spending that funding and looking towards the future. When will the next round of sports capital funding open?

I thank the Minister of State. From my own experience of dealing with clubs during the last round, I trust that the bureaucratic nature of it is something that has been addressed ahead of the next round opening. I fully understand we are dealing with public moneys here and they have to be spent correctly, but we are also dealing with voluntary organisations that are doing incredible work, often in long-term development plans for their clubs. The level of paperwork and detail they have to go into sometimes can be a …

I acknowledge the work of the officials in the Minister of State's Department. The officials I have dealt with in getting answers for clubs in north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny in recent years have been fantastic, even for previous payments that we are trying to get out to clubs now. I am delighted to see the Minister of State coming to the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. for a briefing. I also look forward to welcoming him to Tipperary - hopefully, north Tipperary - in the near future for a b…

The programme for Government states that the Government will prioritise the development of physical education halls and sporting facilities, including yards and play areas, for schools in conjunction with the sports capital fund to deliver for both schools and communities. Will the Minister of State therefore consider creating a schools stream within the sports capital grant in which schools can individually - that is very important - apply for sports capital funding?

I would like to raise the case of Youghalarra National School in Newtown in relation to its summer works programme funding which came from the Department of education. It was a very useful grant and was for the installation of a 608 sq. m ball court. However, to have the best usage of that court and to mitigate against injuries, the board of management wish to have an AstroTurf surface installed on this. This would be very achievable with the funds allocated, but unfortunately the guidelines from the Department of …

The example I gave of Youghalarra National School is one that probably will not fit in to what the Minister of State is saying the next round of the sports capital fund will be, but if the Department of education is giving out grants to build something, surely when the Department of sport is trying to build facilities such as AstroTurf pitches, and we want to see AstroTurf pitches because they get so much usage and are so much safer and cleaner for schools in particular, that the Minister of State would be able to …

Go raibh maith agat. I might change my speech around a bit from what I was going to start with for a few minutes to talk about the positives of AI to begin with, just to give the group in the Gallery a moment. What I was about to say here was quite negative and scathing of what we had seen through Grok and X in recent weeks, but I had planned on concluding by saying the positives were there for AI and an entire conversation was to be had around that point. I am not coming in here to be entirely negative. It is obvi…

I would like to talk about Grok. Requests to Grok have included: "remove her clothes", "take her clothes off", "Grok, bikini now", "put her in a bikini", "replace her clothes with dental floss", "Grok, make her clothes transparent", and "Grok, make her look like she is kneeling for Donald Trump in a bikini". These are some of the requests made by warped individuals on X to take photos of women without their consent and produce sexually explicit, harmful and illegal imagery. Elon Musk's AI invention on X, Grok, duly…

As the Taoiseach knows, school secretaries and caretakers went on indefinite strike action last September. That strike lasted a week until Fórsa and Department officials agreed to go to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, where talks collapsed before Christmas. The issue is before the Labour Court this week. When are we going to get a resolution for school secretaries and caretakers on the issues of pension parity, bereavement leave and sick leave, among other issues? Caretakers have been waiting for years for…

Last February the Government announced its intention to remove the requirement for planning permission for log cabins and modular homes in backyard developments. By the end of the Christmas recess, it will be nearly a year since we heard that announcement. One-off houses in rural Ireland can benefit if we allow log cabins and modular homes to be built not just in backyard developments. They are also one of the few affordable houses out there for young people in rural Ireland whom I speak to. I could give numerous e…

Next year we will hold the Presidency of Europe. During that time, as the Taoiseach is more than aware, our national security will be of paramount importance. Given what has happened with drone activity and interference in Denmark, there is a fear the same will happen in Ireland. With President Zelenskyy's visit last week, we saw drones off the coast of Dublin. It is one thing for us to be a militarily neutral country, and that is right, but it is another thing for us to be able to say whether we can patrol our own…

I thank the Minister for being here today to discuss this important topic on the floor of the Dáil. Right now, young people in this country and across Europe and the world who have access to technology are being failed. Lives and mental health are being damaged as a result of online bullying and harassment. Some of us are aware of horrendous cases where lives have been lost. We have a responsibility in this House to protect young people online and offline and also to listen to them. The damage algorithms do is leth…

The guidelines for wind farms date from 2006. They have not kept up with advancements in technology. I am receiving representations from every corner of my constituency in relation to the inadequacy of guidelines for wind farms. Renewable energy is absolutely essential-----

-----and we cannot regulate it out of existence, either for solar, wind or anaerobic digesters. Last year the Tánaiste said that the Government was listening and would revise the 2006 guidelines. Last night the Taoiseach gave a commitment to the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party that we would see draft guidelines for wind turbines next year. Setback distances, noise control and flicker must be part of this. Will the Tánaiste commit on the floor of the Dáil today that we will see draft guidelines for wind farms? Furth…