Helen McEntee

I concur with everything the Deputy has said. When I spent almost a year in the Department of education last year, special education was one area on which I really wanted to work and make greater progress. There is a greater level of need in special schools but there has also been an increase in need across mainstream schools, if you want to call them that, including special classes within those s…

-----and four more will open later this year.

This is a priority for us and we need to enhance it in every way we can.

My experience and what I saw when I was on the ground in Rafah at the beginning of the year was not inaction by the Egyptian Government or our own officials. It was a preventing of aid or these types of supports by the Israeli Government. I am happy to engage directly with my team on the ground to see what the current situation is. I am happy to engage with the Minister, Mr. Abdelatty, my counterp…

While I am not aware of how information is gathered or whether it is held at a national level as opposed to a county level, I will ask the Minister to come back directly to Deputy Nolan to relay whether this is a practice that happens or does not happen at the county level, in particular, or at national level, or if there are plans to do this.

I thank the Deputy for raising this. For the first time, the most recent family law strategy - which I published two years ago, I think - places a greater emphasis on children, on the impact separation can have on them and, most important, on how we provide supports to young people as they go through the court process with their parents or outside of it where there are experts who engage with them…

We have towns and villages that have seen significant growth in recent years, but where the provision of services has not matched it. The Deputy mentioned Kilcock in particular. There are a lot of young families where both parents are working. We need to make sure we provide support for them through childcare so they can continue in their work. As he said, some of Kilcock is in my constituency so …

Under the early learning and childcare capital programme, the Government and Department will select up to eight facilities a year.

I will ask in my engagement with the Minister for these areas to be identified as there is large population and family growth-----

-----in the areas the Deputy mentioned, such as Kilcock. However, I do not have a specific timeline for that.

While the Deputy has outlined some of the details, I obviously do not know all of the facts of the case. I know that when it comes to teacher allocation, it is very much based on pupil numbers. Where you have such a small gap between what would allow the second teacher, there are always appeals that can take place. I know from experience that sometimes it is not fully understood how to put in the …

The over-riding priority needs to be two things, and I know the Deputy will agree with this. First, we need to ensure the students currently in the college can complete their studies. I have been given assurances that that will continue. The agreed approach is to support Carlow College in delivering the existing programmes through to their completion to August 2028. Second, as the Deputy rightly s…

I will start by fully agreeing with the Deputy. We all know that our secretaries and caretakers are at the very heart of our schools. They are the first people you meet on the grounds as you are walking in. The first person to welcome you is generally the secretary. They are absolutely invaluable in our schools. For me, and I think all of us, it is really important that a resolution is found to th…

First, I acknowledge that a number of hundred people have lost their jobs this week. I have no doubt that it is a very difficult time for them and many of their families. I stress that our enterprise agencies, first and foremost, are trying to assist in whatever way they possibly can those who are impacted to help them to find alternative employment. This includes sharing the skills profiles of th…

The one thing we can all hope for when we get older is that we have the supports we need and that we are treated with dignity and respect. To the Deputy's point, what this gentleman needs is to ensure he has a place outside of a hospital, in a home where he is cared for and supported. I have no doubt he is being cared for in the hospital and in the setting he is in now by the fantastic staff we ha…

The Deputy will appreciate that without knowing the details of the case as to why the man is not being released or sent home or another care facility I cannot comment. I am happy to take the details and pass them directly to the Minister.

I will flag it with her.

I am very to sorry to hear of this case and offer my condolences to his family. As the Deputy outlined, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons makes sure these types of cases and challenges in our prisons are highlighted and, most importantly, addressed. I can certainly raise the case directly with the Minister. The wider point is that we have too many people in our prison system with mental heal…

At the outset, I want to join many colleagues in acknowledging the exceptional service of the men and women of the Defence Forces currently deployed overseas. As we know, their work in peacekeeping missions often takes place in challenging and dangerous environments, as demonstrated most particularly in south Lebanon, and continues to reflect our enduring commitment to international peace and secu…

-----we are trying to keep peacekeeping troops on the ground for. The practical reality is that the veto power exercised or indeed threatened by permanent members of the Security Council can and does prevent action, including in circumstances where there is broad international support. For Ireland, this can create and in fact does create real and immediate consequences. In the absence of a UN mand…

Some commentary has been made on our investment in defence and in security. Being a neutral country does not mean that we should not invest in our capabilities to defend ourselves or that we should not be able to engage with other countries so that we are working collectively together. That does not in any way impact on our military neutrality.

Across Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, civilians are living through devastation, fear and displacement on a scale that should shock the conscience of the world. Families are burying children. Communities are being destroyed. Humanitarian conditions are catastrophic. We know this and I think we all agree on this. While international attention has shifted in recent weeks towards the broader regiona…

I have said we will progress it.

We will----

I move: That Standing Order 194 is modified in accordance with Standing Order 241(2) to provide that it be an instruction to the Select Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, in relation to the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, that the Committee has power to make amendments to the Bill which are outside the scope of the existing subject matter of the Bil…