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reviewed. There has been an increase in the number of public-only consultants in emergency medicine and more senior staff are rostered in emergency departments during weekends and public holidays for better decision-making. The workforce will continue to grow through the recruitment of key roles, retention measures … increase core staffing, reduce waiting lists and expand CAMHS hubs to improve crisis cover for services. In budget 2026, funding has been allocated to develop a new CAMHS emergency liaison service, increase out-of-hours on-call, and to establish a new CAMHS eating disorder team

homes for households at risk of homelessness not only as an exit pathway but also to prevent people from needing access to emergency accommodation in the first place. Prevention of homelessness in the first instance is an absolute priority. There are many prevention initiatives already under … measures, including housing support for use in shared accommodation schemes. Budget 2026 provides a total allocation of €563.5 million to address homelessness. This includes €513.5 million in current funding to ensure local authorities can provide sufficient emergency accommodation as well as essential related services. Housing First makes provision

which I am a part, will be mobilising in a protest, demanding that this Government relent and concede the demand for an emergency disability winter payment of €400 for those with disabilities and, beyond that, implement a cost-of-disability payment. A young man named Jack … facing all these cost-of-living pressures. The Government hammered those people in the budget by taking €1,400 away from them. Will the Government concede their demand for an emergency payment before the demonstration on Saturday

This Saturday, disabled people and the Affordable Ireland campaign will be on the streets demanding an emergency payment after the Government took over €1,400 from them in the last budget. So far, the Government has refused to concede. There is no money for disabled people. There

challenges are real people, which is why we took a number of measures in the budget that were targeted, including expanding the eligibility for fuel allowance. I also make the point that emergency payments are available through community welfare officers for anybody in any difficulty

able to plan a flood defence in an area where they have been implementing emergency measures year on year. This is obviously not a matter of money as the Government has a budget surplus. The fact is that it has under-resourced local authorities, there are not adequate

report. The last report we got told us that at that point in time, 17,000 adults, including 5,000 children, were in emergency accommodation. The number of adults homelessness was up 13% on the year and the number of children up 15%. Every single category of homelessness … absence of spending or programmes on homeless prevention. Just 5% of the annual budget that goes into homelessness is directed towards prevention programmes. The previous Government failed to use the breathing space of the emergency ban on no-fault evictions from 2022 to 2023 to do anything different

about 3.5 per cent, both above the rate of inflation; and — these increases follow on from the increase in payment rates in Budget 2025 that were also above the rate of inflation; recognises, with regard to disability: — that a Strategic Focus Network Summit on the Cost of Disability … households and businesses deal with the rising cost of energy, including €1,500 in electricity credits to all households through four Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Schemes, at a cost of €3.3 billion, this is in addition to one-off payments to support certain social protection payment recipients

infrastructure under upcoming emergency planning legislation. The Portarlington flood relief scheme must be included in any fast-track process. In Mountmellick, areas such as Manor Road continue to flood in times of heavy rainfall. I welcome confirmation that its flood relief scheme, with a budget of €20.8 million

Parliamentary Budget Office confirmed that the Government's budget made things worse and that general poverty will increase as a result of the budget. Child poverty will increase to 15%, poverty among the elderly will increase to 17% and the poorest 20% of the population will see their … people with disabilities, who lost, according to their own assessment, €1,400 as a result of the cuts in one-off payments, emergency payments and so on. This is the reason they are going to be on a very angry demonstration on 28 February. Due to the Government

budget in 2026. Many disabled people have said they are choosing between heating and eating. One person with a spinal injury told me that since 1999, he does not remember it being this bad. When my party and I raised this and called for a modest emergency winter

emergency, there is no perfect set of policy measures, but we do have to use a whole range of levers to try to get housing supply going. That is what we are doing. There are encouraging signs that some of the decisions we took in the budget, some

week before. There is an alternative but, of course, it is one the Government refuses to take. This is a very wealthy country. Budget 2026 projects a surplus of €5.1 billion and over the past three years there has been a surplus of €42.2 billion. The Future Ireland … Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund have €20 billion. This Government can well afford to reinstate energy credits and to introduce an emergency winter payment. If that is not enough, there are huge financial moneys available. Twelve Irish billionaires own €46 billion. That exceeds the combined wealth

House should be aware that a protest will take place this Saturday against the failure to deliver the emergency winter payment. The disability organisations, despite meeting with the Minister and his officials several times, have called for that protest, which I will attend. There is a conversation happening … about a permanent cost-of-disability payment and I really welcome that as a direction of travel. However, there was no repeat in budget 2026 of the €400 payment in budget 2025. The Minister is saying that from budget 2027 on, there will be a payment. The lived

with deposits and mortgage limits. These schemes are not abstract policy instruments. They are enabling thousands of households to purchase their first homes. Budget 2026 has continued the record level of investment in social housing, with €2.9 billion in capital allocated to support the delivery of social homes … social housing programme will increase the supply of stock available to allocate to households on the social housing waiting list, including households in emergency accommodation. I am acutely aware of the profound impact homelessness has on individuals, particularly children, and addressing homelessness is a key priority under Delivering

further to business representative groups either through the enterprise forum or the retail forum the Minister, Deputy Burke, and I chair. If it emerges as a key priority, then certainly we will feed it directly into those considerations and escalate it through the proper channels. I accept some … small businesses and enterprises may face with rising input costs. That is why we have stepped up substantive supports in recent times. In budget 2026, we delivered over €9.4 billion in a pro-enterprise package to try to support our SMEs and businesses over the next number

important issue and for his constant advocacy on in respect of those who have mental health challenges, disorders and illnesses. As he knows, budget 2026 focused on the provision of a crisis resolution response, especially for those who attend acute hospitals out of hours. I was able … this, for our nine model 4 hospitals and one model 3 hospital, so there are ten hospitals in total where each emergency department out of hours will be provided with four clinical nurse specialists or advanced nurse practitioners who will be able to support the non-consultant hospital

country is unparalleled. What was the Government's response? It was a budget for this year that increases poverty, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, and leaves disabled people €1,400 worse off than they were last year, according to the Irish Wheelchair Association, driving an exceptional level … left too many behind. As my colleague, Deputy Cummins, said last week, the Social Democrats put forward a measure for a modest emergency winter payment for disabled people to help the most vulnerable population in the State with this cost-of-living crisis. We were met not just

bring that to the Government as part of the budget 2027 negotiations. We are only at the end of February and the budget negotiations are not yet under way. This issue will be my priority going into those discussions. I invite Deputy Hayes and all the political parties … look like and how it should be structured. We had a very good engagement with the groups yesterday. They continue to pursue an emergency winter payment but my focus is on fulfilling the programme for Government commitment to introduce a permanent payment rather than a temporary

would reach that level. It is a matter of trying just to get things put back until we can find there is no emergency accommodation in Dublin. I do not know if there is any discussion on that in the Dáil. People are just expected to go onto … entire life, was paying her rent, the landlord wanted to sell and the council would not acquire the property because the budget was used up. She ended up with the sheriff coming and being pulled out of the house in her dressing gown, onto the street. She actually

have seen several calls in recent months from the management of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for the public to avoid emergency departments unless absolutely necessary due to the severe overcrowding and, in some cases, extremely high patient numbers. What a great country we have when … years of age, which poses a huge problem coming down the tracks. It is just not good enough. Consistently, in our annual alternative budgets, Sinn Féin has offered costed solutions to all of these issues. The Government's response is to do something, if anything

their parents age or pass on. We need to have a much more meaningful conversation that is not just about numbers, places and budgets but actually about how we plan earlier. Transition points are always really important in all our lives but they are particularly important … when they transition? How do we have those conversations in a respectful way but earlier, so we do not end up with this emergency situation? Forget us, as a Government, it is about the parent and we know these people in their 80s and 90s and that great

centres in 2025 was €53.5 million. The total cost in respect of privately run centres was just over €131 million, while for special emergency arrangements, SEAs, the total cost was just under €38 million. Both Tusla and I share a common aim to meet the needs … year costs of residential places opened in 2025, in addition to 30 new residential places over the course of 2026. Tusla’s capital budget has also been expanded to €35 million in 2026, which represents 100% growth since 2024. It is a significant uplift for Tusla in terms

Aughrim, Arklow, Enniscorthy and Bunclody, where repeated flooding has damaged homes, businesses and vital infrastructure. Years of cuts to local authority road budgets since 2008 by successive Governments of which the Tánaiste was a member have left roads in a dreadful state. Flooding and heavy rain … ensure permanent flood relief is finally delivered? Will he set out clear decisions, timelines and funding commitments today for flood defences and emergency road repairs? Will these communities be asked to accept this and wait another ten years - another decade - and for another series of broken promises, clearing

there is no mitigation. If there was going to be proper drainage put in place, all of that could be encompassed within a budget to not just drain the roads but also improve the quality of the roads and recognise the damage. Every single time there is flooding … going to flood and it happens every time. This time when it happened, it was particularly bad and there were people, including emergency service workers, who were stuck in their homes, which has a knock-on consequence. What I want to say to the Minister of State today

February 2026, to provide the approved governance structure, staffing complement, procurement route, budget allocation, and expected operational commencement date for the Evidence Synthesis Hub for Health Emergency Preparedness. [15899/26