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should not have to get a Leap card. You should be able to use your phone to tap on quickly when getting on a bus or rail service. Accessibility and ease will increase people's use of public transport and will allow us to have a just transition

increasing the threshold for medical card entitlement. It still sits, scandalously, at €186, where it has been for over two decades. For a couple with two children, it is €342. Once a family of four is over that, it loses its medical card. What about cancer patients … appeal again, to allow cancer patients to have a medical card automatically. The Government has failed them. On public dentistry, there is no sign of a ring-fenced budget. In Laois, the public scheme, the dental treatment services scheme, is non-existent. There has been a complete lack

Unprecedented numbers of people are at work, alongside growing shameful child poverty and deprivation. Climbing inequality is set against overflowing tax revenues. Embarrassing public service gaps remain after a more than decade-long boom. A Minister is happy to lay the blame for our infrastructure and housing failures … budget about the culture card - and stamp duty cuts, which did not make it into the budget. It has done so in order to take the bare look off the lack of energy credits and real improvements in public services, and the incredible fare hikes that it decided

public services. I am asking unions to get around the table and negotiate. We are ready. They should stand up and be counted. Sinn Féin should put money by for them or not bother coming in here with a budget that is built on a house of cards

convinced now more than ever that politics, being in government and public administration in general are just one big game to so many members of the Government. Too many of them have no idea of the impact that their decisions make with the simple stroke … multi-annual funding for our health service or transport infrastructure if the Government is continuing to apply a scattergun approach to last-minute negotiations, deal-making and appeasing its friends? The Government has the cheek to tell the public sector unions, which represent hundreds of thousands of workers

train nurses and midwives, have vacancies in our hospitals and community services and then leave graduates who want to work in public health services waiting for contracts. They have been loud about this. The Ministers know about this. Separately in Cork, the CEO of Cork University Hospital … needed to look after our population. In practice, this means a long-term plan for our health service and taking immediate action this year. That includes 80,000 new medical cards, 400 additional acute hospital beds and ramping up investment in GP, primary care, community services, ambulances, mental

cover existing costs. In reality, the Government showed no understanding of the real struggles resulting from rising bills, poorly funded public services and creaking public infrastructure at a time when the cost-of-living crisis leaves so many households running just to stand still. Inflation is running … five children is living in poverty while many of their parents who have what used to be known as good public sector jobs are finding that is no longer a guarantee of a good life or even a basic quality of life. Something has to give. Yesterday

here are obviously in far better circumstances than many of the people out there we are talking about. We are doing this as public sector workers are once again having to work to rule and strike. We are talking about teachers, SNAs, nurses and the people who keep … home heating oil. We would reintroduce energy credits at the rate of €400 and cut food costs by introducing an everyday essentials card worth €500 for 1 million households. That reflects the depth of the problem. That is what we need to do. We would cut fuel costs

Cork and their positive effect on dwell times when buses stop; the timeline for the installation of swipe card readers on all Bus Éireann and other public transport services operating in Galway City; whether funding has been allocated for this rollout; and if he will make a statement