Ken O'Flynn

213. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the alternative policy options considered by his Department to reduce fuel costs for households and businesses, including reductions in VAT on fuel, targeted rebates, or broader excise adjustments, and the estimated cost of each option. [23350/26]

214. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the rationale for limiting the proposed excise reduction to a temporary and defined period, and whether longer-duration or scalable measures were considered in light of ongoing volatility in global oil markets. [23351/26]

215. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance to provide details of any distributional analysis carried out by his Department on the impact of fuel price increases and proposed mitigation measures on different income groups, including middle-income working households not eligible for social welfare supports. [23352/26]

216. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the Government’s current budget surplus influenced the scale and duration of the proposed fuel price interventions, and if so, how this assessment was balanced against current cost-of-living pressures. [23353/26]

217. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the engagement undertaken at EU level regarding coordinated responses to energy price shocks, including any discussions on excise flexibility, VAT measures, or joint purchasing mechanisms. [23354/26]

218. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance to provide the range of oil price and supply shock scenarios currently being modelled by his Department. [23355/26]

266. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she is aware of a child in Cork (details supplied) that has been without a school place since October 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23327/26]

379. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the specific actions that were taken to implement the recommendations arising from an investigation (details supplied) into protected disclosures concerning dysfunctional reporting systems; and the audit or verification that has been carried out to confirm their effectiveness in practice. [23472/26]

143. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the projected overall budget envelope for the 2026 round of the Community Sport Facilities Fund and whether this will exceed the €277.9 million allocated under the 2023 round. [22544/26]

174. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Social Protection the real-time verification mechanisms in place to ensure that recipients of social welfare payments, including child benefit and disability allowance, continue to meet residency requirements within the State; whether these systems include routine cross-checking with immigration, Revenue, and airline or travel data; and if he will outline any plans to introduce automated exit-tracking or enhanced data-sharing to prevent payments issuing to persons no longer resident in the State. [22753/26]

175. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Social Protection the total value of welfare overpayments made to persons not resident in the State in each of the past five years, broken down by scheme; the number of individuals involved annually; and the extent to which these figures represent identified fraud, administrative error, or delayed notification of departure. [22754/26]

176. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Social Protection the annual recovery rate of overpayments made to persons absent from the State; the average duration required to recover such funds; whether penalties, interest, or legal enforcement mechanisms are applied; and if he will outline measures to improve recovery performance. [22755/26]

177. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Social Protection the safeguards in place to ensure that child benefit payments are made only where eligibility conditions, including habitual residence, are satisfied; the number of child benefit claims identified as incorrectly paid to non-resident recipients in each of the past three years; and whether additional verification requirements are being considered. [22756/26]

178. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of internal audits or compliance reviews conducted by the Department relating to payments issued to persons outside the State since 2022;the findings of these audits; and whether any systemic control failures were identified and addressed. [22757/26]

179. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Social Protection whether any legislative or regulatory gaps have been identified which allow welfare payments to continue after a recipient has left the State; and if he will outline any proposed legislative amendments to strengthen eligibility enforcement and prevent recurrence. [22758/26]

415. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether the reversal of the burden of proof provided for under the protected disclosures legislation applies only during formal adjudicative proceedings before bodies such as the Workplace Relations Commission and the courts, or whether it also applies during the administrative handling and investigation of disclosures by public bodies. [22387/26]

416. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether any guidance has been issued to public bodies advising that the evidential presumption relating to retaliation under the protected disclosures legislation should be applied when assessing disclosures internally; and if no such guidance has issued, whether the Government has considered whether the absence of such guidance may create inconsistencies between administrative decision-making and the evidential framework applied in litigation. [22388/26]

417. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether the Government has assessed whether administrative decisions taken without applying the evidential presumption provided for in the protected disclosures legislation may expose the State to avoidable litigation risk where those decisions are later challenged in proceedings before the Workplace Relations Commission or the courts. [22389/26]

418. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if the Government has considered the interaction between the evidential presumption in whistleblower legislation and the Government’s State Litigation Principles, particularly the requirement that State bodies seek to avoid unnecessary litigation and protect public funds. [22390/26]

419. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether the Government has reviewed whether the current interpretation of the burden-of-proof provisions in Irish whistleblower legislation fully reflects the objectives of Directive (EU) 2019/1937, particularly in ensuring effective protection against retaliation. [22391/26]

420. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether any written guidance, circulars, or instructions have been issued to Departments, agencies, or prescribed persons regarding the application of the evidential presumption provided for under the protected disclosures legislation when assessing alleged retaliation during the administrative handling of disclosures; and if such guidance exists, whether he will provide details of the relevant guidance. [22392/26]

421. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the current statutory and administrative procedures governing the dismissal of a civil servant at assistant secretary general level, including any requirements under legislation and civil service circulars for the notification of the civil servant with respect to a show cause letter; and to detail the way in which these procedures would be altered by the proposed civil service regulation and public service management (amendment) and miscellaneous provisions Bill listed in the Government’s Spring 2026 Legislative Programme (p.10), where its status is described as “ongoing”. [22482/26]

789. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the current average caseload per clinician within Children’s Disability Network Teams; the recommended caseload level for such clinicians; and whether the Minister accepts that current staffing levels are preventing children with complex needs from receiving timely intervention. [21444/26]

798. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the statutory and organisational purpose of Horizons as a Children’s Disability Network Team; whether Horizons currently has the staffing and funding necessary to fully meet the needs of children referred to the service; the number of children awaiting assessment and intervention, broken down by type of support (details supplied); the average and maximum waiting times for children to access each type of support; the sanctioned staffing levels for Horizons compared to the number of posts currently filled; her views on whether the current resource levels are sufficient to allow Horizons to fulfil its statutory and organisational obligations; the additional measures, including funding and staffing, are being taken to eliminate delays; and in light of a response received by this Deputy’s office on 13 March 2026, in which a network manager stated that service delivery is constrained by staffing and funding shortages, whether the Minister will confirm the steps being taken to ensure that no child is prevented from accessing essential disability supports due to insufficient resources. [21440/26]

799. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of sanctioned posts within children’s disability network teams nationally and broken down by CHO area; the number of those posts currently filled; the number currently vacant; the grades affected, including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists and therapy assistants; and the steps being taken to address these vacancies. [21441/26]