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1562. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of supported housing units in Cork. [42021/26]

1563. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of supported housing units planned in Cork. [42022/26]

1617. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to outline the process, including specific steps, through which a person with a disability can access a disability manager to assist with their case regarding care and housing; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42741/26]

1629. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department has considered establishing a national longitudinal outcomes dataset for care leavers to track housing status, homelessness, employment, education and wellbeing outcomes following the closure of aftercare supports; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43188/26]

1630. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether any assessment has been undertaken of the long-term housing outcomes of care leavers following the cessation of aftercare supports since 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43189/26]

1631. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department has examined data-sharing arrangements with local authorities or homelessness services to monitor housing outcomes among former care leavers after aftercare case closure; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43190/26]

1656. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether the HSE or her Department maintains a national register of current and projected residential housing need for adults with intellectual disabilities; if not, whether consideration is being given to establishing such a register; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43325/26]

1657. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of adults with intellectual disabilities currently awaiting residential placements, supported living arrangements or alternative housing supports, broken down by CHO area, age cohort and length of time waiting; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43326/26]

1665. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department has prepared a long-term strategy to meet the residential and housing support needs of adults with intellectual disabilities over the next ten years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43334/26]

1751. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Health if she will establish a joint working group to address the level of supports that should be provided to older people by local authorities in line with the Age Friendly Counties Programme and in the context of the Programme for Government identifying a social supports for approved housing bodies. [41467/26]

1866. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Health the number of WTE Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Registrar in Emergency Medicine and Senior House Officer in Emergency Medicine based at Mullingar Regional Hospital as of 26 May 2026; if she will provide the same figures as of 30 June 2023, in tabular form. [41798/26]

2242. Deputy Eamon Scanlon asked the Minister for Health the plans in place to expand housing provision for young people with additional needs in Manorhamilton; whether discussions have taken place with Leitrim County Council regarding the potential purchase of properties (details supplied) in the town to accommodate members of the National Learning Network; and if she will make a statement on the…

2461. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health if she is aware of the ongoing delays in the provision, assessment, and setup of assistive technology (AT) supports due to a lack of in-house expertise within the HSE; the extent to which HSE staff are trained to assess and implement AT supports without reliance on external agencies such as the Central Remedial Clinic; and if she will outl…

95. Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Education and Youth whether the demographic trends used by her Department are adequately reflecting the pace of which housing is developing in Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40799/26]

187. Deputy Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when she expects to bring forward the Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 to the Houses of the Oireachtas; if she will consider including a ban on services in the Bill to ensure maximum effectiveness of the sanctions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40932/26]

191. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the steps being taken to ensure that the expansion of the electricity grid keeps pace with increased demand from housing development and renewable energy projects in rural Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40856/26]

302. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to consider implementing a dedicated tourism marketing support package for those towns and villages transitioning from housing BOTBs back to tourism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40927/26]

378. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the progress made towards publishing guidelines for solar energy projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40853/26]

379. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the progress made towards publishing guidelines for battery energy storage projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40854/26]

380. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if an assessment has been undertaken regarding the impact of vape and smoke retail outlet proliferation on commercial vacancy patterns, retail diversity or traditional retail activity within town centres; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40874/26]

381. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on the development of national planning statements for critical infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40392/26]

382. Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline the engagement his Department has had with an organisation (details supplied) in relation to the review of their memorandum of understanding; to confirm if details of the review process have been provided to the organisation; the nature and timing of any such engagement; the current status of the revie…

384. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if planning legislation currently permits local authorities to regulate or restrict the concentration or clustering of vape and smoke retail outlets within towns, villages or city centres; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40875/26]

385. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if consideration has been given to introducing planning or zoning controls relating to the density or concentration of vape and smoke retail outlets within urban areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40876/26]

386. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has issued planning guidance to local authorities relating to vape and smoke retail outlets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40877/26]

I agree with the Bill and I thank Sinn Féin for putting it forward. However, when people come to my clinics in Cork, they are not talking to me about Green Papers, citizens' assemblies or constitutional reports. They are talking about trying to get a roof over their heads. They are talking about waiting months and years for healthcare. They are talking about crime in their communities, the cost of…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 21 together. As part of the budgetary process each year, my Department sets overall expenditure ceilings for each ministerial Vote group. These are laid out at Vote level in the budget day expenditure report published in October, with further detail provided in the Revised Estimates for public services published in December. Following the allocation of each …

I am not privy to the interaction the Deputy had with the Minister for housing on this, but the Local Government Fund distributes the respective funding across different local authorities, and Galway County Council and Galway City Council would receive allocations through that. I was clear in my initial response to Deputy O'Hara. We have significant investment across many projects in the west of …

I raise the very serious accommodation difficulties that Coachford National School is experiencing. The school has done everything asked of it. The board, principal, staff and parents have all worked together to accommodate significant growth in pupil numbers, but they are now at a point where there is simply nowhere left to go. The numbers tell the story. The school had approximately 109 students…

I thank the Deputy. I wish all students sitting examinations the very best of luck, as well as all those students who are coming to an end of their secondary education, whether they are going to college, further education or elsewhere. Like the Deputy, I will not get much of a break. While this House breaks up in two or three weeks’ time, I will host the European research Ministers the week after …

I know people were happy with the reduction. It is swings and roundabouts as to whether the total level went up or down, but it is what it is. No one in this House can deny the challenges students face. Of course, there are students who do not pay because of SUSI. I appreciate that the threshold for SUSI increased, but there are students stuck in the middle. This is the challenge. We have heard of…

I entirely agree. I thank Deputy Kenny for his support and the support of his party on the broader policy initiative. What he says is true. I have visited MTU in Tralee. I have visited all of the different technological universities, TUs, and their components at least once, if not a few times. I recently held a construction skills roundtable event in UCD where we brought together the employers in …

As I mentioned in response to earlier questions, we have a commitment of €4.55 billion to the sector more broadly in the capital envelope available through the national development plan, which is record investment and strong support for research and innovation in the higher and further education ecosystems. I have taken receipt of the IUA's pre-budget submission. I have to go through it. I unders…

When I am asked about a serious issue, it is nice to be allowed to respond without a cacophony trying to shout me down, as happens every time in this House. I have made a very serious point that Deputy Doherty should not come into this House and make the point that €50 million is lost to the taxpayer when the State is doing its job in making sure that terms and conditions of contracts are scrutini…

We both know that Europe works by consensus and that there is only so much we can do to facilitate as an honest broker. While competitiveness is incredibly important, with the capital markets union and the 28th regime coming forward, workers' rights were not mentioned once yesterday at the event in Dublin Castle. This gives us an opportunity to bring the Irish people with us rather than this Presi…

When the Deputy uses phrases like “rolls out the red carpet” for the President of the European Commission, the mask kind of slips. It is a sharp reminder that Sinn Féin has opposed every single European referendum, including the one to join the European Union. It is a Eurosceptic party; it has been since its foundation. If it were up to Sinn Féin, Ireland would not be in the European Union because…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. There are certainly constructive and long-overdue elements within this legislation, particularly the reforms proposed around judicial reviews. For far too long, communities, local authorities and applicants have been trapped in cycles of chronic delay - delays that frequently extend into years. We all know of cases where judicial review has been used…

I know of a family in Mayo. The mother attended the local primary school in the parish. Her father attended the same local primary school. Her children are now attending the same local school. She sought planning permission to build in the catchment area of that primary school. She was denied on the basis of local planning need. Three generations living in the same area and she was refused plannin…

Thank you. I will keep going. For anyone concerned about biodiversity, the impact of coursing on the Irish hare population should be a major concern. A National Parks and Wildlife Service study indicates an eight times lower survival rate for hares after they are released from coursing. That is a significant additional stressor on wild hare populations, which are already in decline, along with mos…

I convey the apologies of the Minister, Deputy Heydon, who is unable to attend. I am taking the debate on behalf of the Government. I wish to clearly state at the outset that the area of animal welfare is of the utmost importance to me, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Government as a whole. Our Department devotes considerable resources to protecting the well-being of an…

Some 77% of Irish people favour a ban on hare coursing. The reason they want to see a ban on hare coursing is, simply put, that it is cruel. It is completely unnatural to pull a wild animal from their environment, to cage it for weeks and put it out in front of a greyhound and essentially let it run for its life. To do that and to call it a sport is probably one of the things that I have most diff…

I am happy and pleased to support Deputy Murphy's Bill today on behalf of the Green Party. This is probably the fourth substantive debate we have had on animal welfare related issues during the term of this Dáil. We are discussing hare coursing today. We discussed fox hunting, puppy farms and greyhound racing. I recognise the work of those Deputies who have brought these issues forward as Private …

Apologies. I know the point has been made about the risk of hare coursing being driven underground. First, it is important to recognise that illegal hare coursing already takes place underground. It is probably the biggest cause of mortality among hares right now. I do not believe the existence, and continued existence, of an illegal practice justifies the continued State support for a practice th…

It is great to have the Minister in the House this morning. I very much welcome the opportunity to have a discussion of a practical nature that will solve this issue and have really positive impacts on patients, staff and the wider health service across the north east. The minor injury unit in Louth County Hospital, Dundalk, is one of the best services in the country. It serves the people of Lout…

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. I congratulate Deputy Ennis on his recent election. What a day for his family, friends and supporters. It is an incredible achievement. It is great to see the two constituency TDs from the same party working so closely together. It is not that common, by the way. I am grateful that they have raised this issue. I appreciate that there is a sense of vibr…

The cost-of-living crisis is hitting my constituency of Galway West incredibly hard. In this Chamber I have raised countless examples of families in Galway under unbearable pressure from the cost of living. Working people cannot make their wages stretch to cover soaring rents, crippling energy bills and the ever-increasing cost of their weekly shop. Crucially, rents are now up in Galway by 18%. Th…

The Minister of State sits across from us practically every week to deal with motions from various Opposition groups so he will know only too well the challenges that families and small businesses across this country are encountering as a result of Ireland being simply unaffordable for far too many people in 2026. This is the umpteenth motion to be tabled in this House since the general election. …

I thank Deputies Tóibín and Lawless and Aontú for bringing forward this very important motion. As every TD will tell the Minister of State, we are meeting people across our constituencies who are doing everything society asks of them. They get up early in the morning, go to work, pay their taxes, raise their children and contribute to their communities. However, despite doing everything correctly,…

This motion is timely because, with the massive increases for people running their homes and businesses, people who are working have never been at more of a disadvantage because of the high cost of going to work, childcare and fuel. What we need is a more targeted approach by the Government. It will never be more important or timely than in the upcoming budget to make sure that the supports that w…

I thank Aontú for bringing forward this motion and giving me the chance to speak on it. I have spoken about the cost of living multiple times, including when speaking to my constituents. I have spoken 41 times in the Dáil and committees about plug-in solar, and I want to bring it up again. As we know, Ireland is one of the most data centre-dense countries. I brought in a Bill three weeks ago regar…