Donna McGettigan

I am glad to hear that the Minister is going to put funds into this. It is a very hard issue for students to deal with. Some of the issues they are dealing with include the skyrocketing cost of accommodation or even the type of accommodation they live in. Some students are just leaving home and are stuck in accommodation that is not working for them. Mental health should be treated with the same u…

The counsellor-student ratio should be 1:1,000 but at the moment I think it we are at 1:1,500. We need to bridge this gap. I am glad to hear about Togetherall and that it is a 24-7 service but is there a waiting list for it? Students struggling with their mental health today should not have to wait weeks for help. They should not have to choose between paying rent or paying for therapy and they de…

We are facing a shortage of GPs. People in County Clare have contacted me to state that when their doctor or GP retired, they were left with no GP as they did not have a medical card and they are now reliant on walk-in clinics. People with a medical card have been assigned to already overburdened GPs when their GP retired. People cannot get appointments to see their doctors, leaving them with no c…

I welcome this motion from Independent Ireland. As someone who was an unpaid carer for my husband before he passed, I have lived the reality of a system that does not value care work, whether it is done in the home, in our communities or in nursing homes. I know first hand the emotional and physical toll and the financial hardship carers face every single day. However, I would do it again because …

More than 15,000 children are now overdue their assessment of need. That is 15,296 children who could be left with a decline in their quality of life. It is 15,296 children whose development and learning will be potentially impacted, who could be missing out on opportunities for support, who could be missing out on therapy and other services that could help them reach their full potential, and who…

We are treading a precarious line when it comes to our National Ambulance Service and its duty of care. I was recently contacted by the parent of a 21-month-old boy who had a seizure out of nowhere. This young child was unconscious for several minutes, but it took 66 minutes for an ambulance to reach him. Time and again we have instances like this where people are experiencing unimaginable distres…

I speak today about something that touches every community, family and sector of our economy. I refer to the power of further education in an ever-changing Ireland. We are living in a time of profound transformation, technologically, economically and socially. In such a dynamic world, education is not just a tool for personal development; it is the backbone of national resilience and progress. In …

13. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Transport to provide an update on the review of the National Aviation Policy to maximise the use of our regional airports, as promised in the programme for Government [20950/25]

We are looking for the new aviation policy to be reviewed. I have heard the Minister say it will be reviewed. I understand that we have to get this right but this clearly needs to be done as a matter of urgency. The Minister has not given us clear timelines on this. Perhaps the Minister could really push this and give us clear timelines.

I understand all of what the Minister has said with regard to what needs to be done. However, I believe the stakeholders would probably say they are already at where they need to be with it, so maybe it could be expedited. Many tourists visiting Ireland travel to the west, and many are brought in by bus. They are brought through Dublin Airport, take a bus to the west and take a bus back up. This i…

I welcome all that the Minister has said. I know he cannot make airlines land in certain airports, but I am sure he can help make the other airports more viable for these airlines to land in. We would welcome working with him in that regard. We have seen the chaos in Dublin Airport. This is not an anti-Dublin Airport statement at all. We welcome the lift on the passenger cap too, but the regional …

In my county of Clare there is a high demand for early care and education places. Parents have to put their children on multiple waiting lists and there still may not be a place for them in the end. I know of a couple who have two young children and the best option for them is to have one child in a service in Sixmilebridge, which is approximately 9 km from where they live, the second child attend…

A commitment was made last autumn to make the increase in the cap for the defective block grant scheme available to all homeowners and not just new entrants. This is a straightforward amendment to the 2022 legislation and should have been brought through the Dáil and the Seanad before now. A large number of homeowners are facing real financial hardship trying to make the final payment to builders …

There is the possibility of hundreds of children having had unnecessary surgery for hip dysplasia just in the period 2021 to 2023. That is hundreds of children who were put through the pain of surgery and the difficulty of recovery. Hundreds of sets of parents, guardians and wider families who were put through the anxiety of having their child operated on. They had to watch their children sufferin…

I am sure we are all relieved that so far pharmaceuticals and chemicals have been exempted from the 20% tariff imposed on exports to the USA from the EU. However, reports are now suggesting that President Trump will be introducing tariffs on these sectors. While tariffs are usually seen as a tool to protect local industries, they can also have a negative impact for small, export-driven economies …

1. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the progress being made with regard to the current challenges in the apprenticeship system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14864/25]

I thank the Minister for taking my question this morning. The apprenticeship system is unfit for purpose and has been for several years now. What measures does the Minister intend to introduce to address the problems faced by apprentices and the system more generally? These have resulted in the system failing to produce qualified tradespeople at a pace that meets demand. These problems have plague…

While I agree that measures have been made into the phase 2, will this not push the backlog back into phases 4 and 6? We have a drop out rate of 3,400. Have they been included in the Minister's figures as well? When that number of people drops out, it shows that it is unfit for purpose. The apprenticeship system is essential to problems the Government has yet to address. Consider the issue of hou…

How many of those in these figures are actually finishing? There are 3,376 who failed to finish because they are not getting paid enough. The programme for Government states that the Government would "Ensure a skilled labour force by providing practical support for on-the-job training and apprenticeship schemes and consider additional measures". Has that process begun? At what stage is the process…

5. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans for the contributory fee; if he will maintain the cut in the fee, as has been set out in the programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14866/25]

Should I ask my question or speak to it?

Yes, that is fine.

The Minister will have to excuse my scepticism. He is bamboozling me with figures on this. The programme for Government commits to continuing to reduce the student contribution fee over the lifetime of the Government. What the Minister is saying here falls far short of the commitment to reduce the fees to zero. There is no timeline for this or detail on the increments. Higher education is a public…

Free fees worked in secondary schools and has helped Ireland greatly. There are huge issues with the SUSI grant. People who are trying to prove they are separate from their parents in order to get the SUSI grant are not getting it. There is an issue with the way in which SUSI considers people's circumstances. If you were working two years ago, SUSI will look at your income at that time, not at the…

3. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans to close the funding deficit in the university sector, first identified in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14865/25]