Thomas Byrne

I thank the Deputy for the question. I will start by recognising the importance of the Reserve Defence Force to the State. In the past few years, we have witnessed a revitalisation of the Reserve. The strength of the Reserve Defence Force, as of the end of 2025, was 204 first-line Reserve personnel and 1,612 second-line Reserve personnel, which is comprised of 1,481 Army Reserve personnel and 131 …

The regeneration plan was published in July 2024 and has four main priorities: recruitment and retention: resourcing; training; and integration and deployment. In relation to specific issues with Reserve Defence Force activities that attract payments, conditions under which reservists are paid for certain activities are set out in the Defence Force regulations. In 2023, a letter of instruction was…

Recruitment has increased substantially, particularly in 2024. It slowed down in 2025 but the numbers were substantially higher than they were 2023. The numbers will be boosted by the number of applicants who were undertaking module 1 pre-induction training at the end of last year. Work has been done and numbers have gone up. That is very important. There is a huge effort under way to attract mor…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta ós rud é gur chuir sé an t-ábhar tábhachtach seo ar an gclár inniu. Gabhann an tAire, an Teachta Browne, a leithscéal. Níl sé in ann a bheith linn um thráthnóna. At the outset, I should point out that the operation of the public water supply and the wastewater supply are operational issues locally for Uisce Éireann, which has statutory responsibility for all aspec…

Across Louth and other affected counties, Uisce Éireann teams are still actively responding to the impact of the storm to triage incidents, to prioritise safety-critical interventions and to ensure that essential services remain operational. The exact cause of specific flood incidents observed in parts of Dundalk remain unclear. Multiple factors, including ground saturation, river level fluctuatio…

I have huge empathy with the Deputy and the residents. My suggestion would be to let Uisce Éireann and the council deal with the immediate aftermath of what is happening this week. Thereafter, it is fair to say, Uisce Éireann has responsibility for wastewater and the sewerage system in general. The local authority is responsible for drainage. It is probably a case of knocking heads together in the…

I will take it back to the Minister.

I thank the Deputy for making this important case. The Government is committed to the provision of additional special school places for children with special educational needs. Budget 2026 secured funding for 3,000 new specialist places and the NCSE is currently looking at where these places should be best located for the school year 2026-2027. There is a lot of work going on at the moment in that…

I assure people that this process is still under way. Quite frankly, the Department of education does not look at it in terms of Kildare South or Kildare North. It looks at the children who are there. Through the process that will balance out. There will be more in Kildare North, I assume because it is a bigger population. I also assume it will balance out as the process goes on. The idea that thi…

I do not know. The Deputy keeps talking about constituencies and why one constituency is getting more than another. The Department-----

The Department has information about children and is going through that information. It has not come to any final decision and there will be quite a few more announcements to be made. It is about the children and their constitutional right to be educated, which we are proud to have in this country. It needs to be implemented and the Department and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, work every…

On the individual case, I strongly urge the Deputy to give the details to me or directly to the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan. The Government is committed to the provision of additional special places for children with special educational needs. There is funding, as I said previously, for 3,000 new specialist places and the NCSE today is currently examining where those are best locat…

We have to guarantee those places for children. The Government is acutely conscious of that. Work is ongoing to ensure that this guarantee, which, in my view, derives from the Constitution, is fulfilled for every child who needs a school place. The Department continues to engage intensively with the NCSE to forward plan for new special provision to get a place for every single child in the setting…

I thank Deputy Cummins for raising this matter. The Minister for Education and Youth has asked me to set out the position with regard to youth work provision and the funding supports available. Supporting youth services and youth work is an absolute priority for the Department of Education and Youth. The Department is committed to ensuring that young people in Ballyfermot and everywhere else in th…

Deputy Cummins can be assured that the Department, Minister and officials will continue to actively engage with City of Dublin ETB, youth services and young people to ensure that there is appropriate provision for young people in Ballyfermot. The Department's commitment builds on the significant work already undertaken through targeted funding and collaborative initiatives, which have strengthened…

Sorry, I was agreeing with the Deputy. It was the idea of ordering a coffee on a drone.

It is unimaginable where I live, so-----

I had no idea people ordered coffee. I am in a lot of sympathy with the Deputies but that only shows there are many people out there very happy to order coffee by drone. That is part of the public view as well.

They are people who want coffee. They are voting with their orders as well. The Minister sends his apologies that he could not attend the latter half of the debate. I am happy to be here and respond to this important debate on behalf of the Government. The Deputies have made good contributions. Deputy O'Gorman has done incredible work bringing this to the House. We acknowledge the work that he ha…

Each to their own.

It does not.

Backing their constituents.

Tell that to the workers in Eli Lilly. Tell that to the farmers working in your own constituency. You know what you are doing with your language.

Go down to Valeo in Tuam and give that speech.

You will not go to Tuam and give that speech-----