Eoghan Kenny

I appreciate the response by the Minister of State. It is extremely important that we continue to highlight the significant issues faced by children across this country and the barriers before them in education. Today the Labour Party launched our Alternative Budget 2026. A significant part of this relates to disadvantage in our school communities and in education. In our alternative budget we wan…

I also thank the Social Democrats for bringing this motion forward. I do not doubt the Minister's bona fides on this matter. He is a good man. I am well aware that it is more than likely there are people coming into his constituency office and applying for carer's allowance. I do not doubt that. At the same time, people - women are predominantly the carers in this country - are feeling significant…

I will be extremely parochial with my contribution. We are a year on now since the general election. Large-scale sport infrastructure funding was granted to Cork County Council, North Cork Athletics Club and Mallow Athletic Club for an athletics track at Carhookeal in Mallow. Speaking last year, the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, said the project would be developed in the short term on a …

The Taoiseach raised the possibility of using bespoke legislation to ensure a major sewerage scheme for Dublin does not face further delays. He said that we cannot tolerate any more delays. What about our own county of Cork? I am sure that, similar to my office, his office is inundated with housing needs. In July, five homes commenced building in Cork city. The city's monthly commencement average …

Private homes.

Private single homes.

Yes.

They are five singular homes.

The Minister of State will be well aware that on 11 August this year members of the Mallow angling group reported dead fish in the River Blackwater which, in turn, led to an investigation by Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Cork County Council and the Marine Institute. Fish mortality in the River Blackwater is on a scale that we have never before seen in thi…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I appreciate it. I fully recognise the Government's response to this. To the fair to them, the Ministers of State, Deputies Dooley and O'Sullivan, have taken calls from me and have recognised the fact that a significant ecological disaster that has affected many species and wildlife has taken place on the River Blackwater. My issue lies solely with the …

Over 225,000 children live below the poverty line in this country. How are families meant to get out of poverty in Ireland in 2025? Food is getting more and more expensive. Food is not an optional extra. It is an everyday basic need. People are working to the bone. Parents are skipping meals to ensure their children are fed. Coming into winter, once again energy costs are going up. Heating one’s h…

The Minister of State is going to be well aware of some of the schools and areas I am going to raise, as we are both from in and around the same area. As spokesperson on education for the party, I have heard from a significant number of people including teachers, parents, lobby groups within community areas and volunteers who have spoken to me about school transport or the lack of school transpor…

I welcome the motion from Sinn Féin and the opportunity to raise these issues and concerns relating to school places for children with additional education needs. The Labour Party will absolutely support the motion. This is the third motion on this subject in 2025, including one of our own. The reality for a significant number of children with additional education needs and their parents has not c…

I welcome the motion brought forward by Sinn Féin. I begin my own contribution by welcoming all the students in the Gallery, who came out in force this evening against this €1,000 increase in the student fees. I put on the record that I have great respect for the Minister, but I absolutely think this is an argument and a fight that the Government is losing. I say that because the Minister made an …

He made that assertion.

I appreciate that, and I would appreciate if that was taken back because he made that assertion about people like me. I am not using this as a political football. This is genuine. I am the youngest Member in this House. I came out of college and the only reason I went to college was that I had access to a SUSI grant, but 80% of people across the country do not have that same access to a full grant…

97. Deputy Eoghan Kenny asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for an update on the programme for Government commitment to continue to reduce the student contribution fee over the lifetime of the Government, as of July 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37316/25]

I realise that we have just had a debate on this. I seek an update on the programme for Government to continue to reduce the student contribution fee over the lifetime of the Government, as of July 2025.

I do not doubt the Minister's bona fides on this. It spans - the Minister referred to it there quite lightly - a number of Departments. We have significant challenges in housing. We have significant challenges in a different cost-of-living crises in terms of paying for groceries, for example, running a car, and the different type of relationship one has with parents at home on whether they are abl…

The debate the Minister referred to in his first contribution is essential. It is important and we all need to contribute towards that. The only question I have in relation to the student support facility that is in place is that the emails I am receiving tell me that they cannot afford this new measure and this new cost. I then go back to people and ask them whether they have applied for SUSI. T…

102. Deputy Eoghan Kenny asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans for a renewed action plan to succeed the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025; if the new action plan will have a focus on apprentice wages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37310/25]

I thank the Minister. He made a very important point towards the end of his reply in terms of employers and apprentices meeting each other halfway. I have an aunt who has a hair salon in Mallow and I know from her of the difficulty of taking on an apprenticeship student and trying to make that work with one's own work schedule. Are incentives for employers to take on more apprenticeship students b…

I have a slight difficulty with wages being negotiated between the students themselves and the employer. The State must have a role to play in the negotiations between apprentices and employers in terms of how wages are set. While it is the case that employers are not taking on a fully qualified person but someone who is moving into the trade, it is important that apprentices get a fair wage. I do…

On behalf of the Labour Party, I express my sympathies with the families of those involved in the car crash in County Donegal yesterday evening. Yesterday the HSE CEO, Bernard Gloster, revealed that the waiting list for assessments of need will get worse before it gets better. It is quite clear now that there are over 15,000 children waiting for an assessment of need and a prediction for 25,000 c…

I wish to address the provision of incontinence products by the HSE. Although the Minister of State is not the line Minister, I wish to raise this serious issue for families across the country. Incontinence products are essential. They are used daily. I wish to speak specifically about incontinence products for children. I refer to a specific case raised by a parent with me in relation to her son.…