Séamus McGrath
Question:1. Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [12359/26]
Ceisteanna - Questions
Cabinet Committees
Paul McAuliffe
Question:2. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [12361/26]
Ryan O'Meara
Question:3. Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [12365/26]
Peter 'Chap' Cleere
Question:4. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [12366/26]
Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:5. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [28189/26]
Louis O'Hara
Question:6. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [32048/26]
Liam Quaide
Question:7. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [38776/26]
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:8. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [38897/26]
Paul Murphy
Question:9. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [38900/26]
Ruth Coppinger
Question:10. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [38903/26]
Conor Sheehan
Question:11. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will meet next [39594/26]
Jennifer Whitmore
Question:12. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [39725/26]
Darren O'Rourke
Question:13. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [42077/26]
Conor Sheehan
Question:14. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will meet next. [42080/26]
Peadar Tóibín
Question:15. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [42219/26]
Barry Heneghan
Question:16. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Housing will meet next. [43620/26]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 16, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on housing last met on Thursday, 14 May. The committee will next meet on Monday, 29 June. The committee works to ensure a cross-government approach to the implementation of our commitments regarding housing policy.
Housing supply has increased significantly over the past number of years and home completions data for quarter 1 shows that 2026 is off to a very good start, with almost 8,000 new homes built, which is the highest number of quarter 1 completions since the series began 15 years ago. Apartment completions in quarter 1 of 2026, at 2,355, are up 33.3% from quarter 1 of 2025. In quarter 1 of 2026, more than half of the completions were scheme dwellings, 30% were apartments and 18% were single dwellings. In 2025, over 36,000 homes were completed, up 20% from 2024, while 2025 saw the highest number of people buying their first home in well over a decade, with first-time buyer mortgage drawdowns of almost 28,000, supported by Government-backed measures such as the first home and help to buy schemes. In addition, we now have the highest social housing build per annum on record.
Clearly, the measures we have implemented, backed by unprecedented State investment, are working but we have an awful lot more to do and are still not at the scale we need to reach to make sure we can provide for people to be able to buy or rent a house at an affordable rate. We have made available the highest ever commitment of Exchequer funding for housing - €28 billion up to 2030 - along with additional funding through State vehicles, including the Land Development Agency, the Housing Finance Agency, Home Building Finance Ireland, the first home scheme and the Irish Strategic Investment Fund.
The Land Development Agency has revised its corporate strategy in line with its expanded mandate - a wider geographical focus, an emphasis on starter homes, a greater mix of tenure to include more social and private housing delivery and infrastructure-led delivery, with an updated business plan expected by quarter 3 which will outline expected annual delivery to 2030.
Along with the agency's role in managing the State-owned lands to help develop new homes and regenerate underutilised sites, it will continue to unlock stalled private planning consented developments through its market engagement and home builder partnership initiative, Project Tosaigh. Through these various delivery channels, the LDA has delivered more than 3,000 homes to date and to scale up housing supply, we need to significantly zone more land and more serviced land. All 31 local authorities across the country have been tasked with ensuring that more than enough land is zoned to meet the needs of our citizens. The process is well under way, with local authorities signalling they will have over 70% of required land zoned complete by the end of June.
Time is up, Taoiseach. It will be read into the record. We have 16 Deputies. On the balance of fairness, I propose 45 seconds each. I will do my best so each Deputy gets a reasonable answer. I call on Deputy Séamus McGrath.
I thank the Taoiseach for his update. I want to raise the issue of the qualifying income limits for social housing. The Minister for housing has indicated a willingness to examine these limits but I am raising it because I believe they urgently need to be increased. An increasing number of working people are finding themselves outside the social housing income limits and outside the social housing support bracket. This is increasing the cohort of people who are effectively receiving no support from the State. Traditionally, social housing was available to working people. We need to get back to that place. I ask the Taoiseach to please take this issue back and increase the limits as soon as possible.
In the past few weeks we have had a large number of social housing projects in my area completed, namely, Millview, Melville and Piper's Square, which will contribute more than several hundred cost-rental and social units. Last week, we were informed that the Land Development Agency had bought land for 600 units. Those units should be affordable purchase homes because that is not an option we currently have in the mix in our constituency. I ask the Taoiseach to do everything in his power to work with the LDA to ensure there is affordable purchase and cost-rental housing on this new site and that residents are engaged with about what that will mean for the area.
I wish to raise the issue of difficulties of building a one-off rural house, particularly in my constituency of Tipperary North and in north-west Kilkenny. From restrictions around access onto regional roads that do not always need to be there, to sight-line issues, ribbon development and the difficulty of building on one's own land, it should not be a privilege to build a house and live in the area in which you grew up. What is the Government doing to make it easier to build that one-off rural home, particularly for younger people who are trying to get back into their own area, perhaps coming home from abroad, start a family, raise their family there to support the local club, the local school and the local community? What are we, in Government, going to do to ensure we can build those houses in rural Ireland?
Last night in Kilkenny we had a very special evening when Eamon Langton was conferred with the honour of becoming a freeman of Kilkenny city. Mr Langton has been a champion of Kilkenny city for decades and has been a brilliant ambassador for all things that are great in Kilkenny, be that the Kilkenny hurling team and his support, tourism and employment. He has been absolutely fantastic. He joins a very exclusive club that includes Éamon de Valera, Constance Markievicz, Brian Cody and Eddie Keher. Eamon Langton is a freeman of the city and it is much deserved. I pay tribute to and thank the mayor, Councillor John Coonan, for his foresight in nominating Eamon Langton. It was a very special evening. I congratulate Eamon and all his family. Can the Taoiseach give us an update on the rural housing and planning guidelines and when they will be published?
I asked the Taoiseach about what I consider to be the absolutely disgraceful decision of DLR Properties, which is a corporate subsidiary of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, to put up for sale land zoned for more than 1,000 houses. We could have more than 1,000 social and affordable homes but instead a board, which is not accountable to the elected representatives on Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council or to the public but is populated by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors, has decided to sell off public land. I asked the Taoiseach about it last week. I would like to know because this is disgraceful. I thought all publicly-owned land that could be available for social and affordable housing was supposed to be made available, for example, to the LDA. The idea that it is being sold off to private developers who are then going to build housing that nobody can afford is a scandal.
The recent RTÉ "Prime Time" programme on dereliction should shame the Government into action on this issue. It showed that driving the blight of dereliction is an abject failure of enforcement as well as a failure to even record the number of properties that are being left to rot in our towns, villages and cities. The problem is painfully visible in east Cork. Castlemartyr is a beautiful, historic village with enormous potential but large parts of its main street have been scarred by long-standing, egregious dereliction. It is well-known locally that much of that dereliction in Castlemartyr is linked to one family. This is not just about appearances. It damages community pride, housing supply, tourism appeal and heritage, and creates a wider impression of neglect and decay. How has this been allowed to happen for so long? There is no excuse for it. Will the Taoiseach commit to a proper national register, stronger enforcement and full collection of levies?
South Dublin County Council management is planning massive rent hikes for 20,000 families from July of this year. That includes council tenants, HAP tenants, homeless HAP tenants and approved housing body tenants. The council is increasing the base rate by 25% but also making a series of other changes such as incorporating into the assessment the working family payment, which means some families are going to see their rents increased in July by 53%. Not only is this massively unjust and unaffordable for many, it flies in the face of what elected councillors agreed in a motion unanimously passed in February that stated there should be no change until there has been consultation with tenants and tenants unions, such as Community Action Tenants Union, CATU. That consultation has not taken place. At the very least, will the Taoiseach agree that this should be suspended until there has been a consultation and until elected councillors get to vote on it?
Limerick faces a severe housing deficit. It is 6,000 homes behind delivery targets. The Taoiseach recently spoke at the Limerick Chamber business luncheon but planning permissions and housing commencements are down 40% in Limerick in the past year and both the Chamber and An Taisce-----
Did the Deputy say An Taisce?
-----have raised reasonable issues in relation to the disconnect that is there between national policy enabling or hindering local development. Density zoning of 50 per hectare in Castletroy, Mungret, Raheen and other suburban areas is affecting viability in those areas and it is going to be very hard to get 100-plus dwellings per hectare in the city centre. What sort of targeted interventions are the Government considering to ensure that Limerick reaches its housing targets?
In Ireland, 90% of protected habitats are in an unfavourable conservation condition. Ireland ranks one of the lowest in the world when it comes to nature intactness and we also spend, as a percentage of our GDP, one of the lowest amounts among countries in Europe. The Government has an Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund but the independent body that was set up to look at nature restoration has estimated it is going to cost €450 million to €700 million a year to roll out nature restoration plans in Ireland. However, there is no money currently ring-fenced for that under the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. This is something I raised so many times with the previous Government and with the previous Minister. Funds needed to be ring-fenced for nature protection and restoration under the fund. It was not done by the previous Government. I am asking the Taoiseach to ring-fence money for nature protection.
The Taoiseach has acknowledged the fact that we need service sites to deliver housing. In many parts of the country, our water network is absolutely creaking. This weekend, for practically the whole weekend, Duleek and Stamullen in County Meath were without water due to unscheduled outages and failed repairs. These outages are all too regular. There is a plan for investment in the network. I am asking the Taoiseach to ensure that is prioritised and rolled out as quickly as is possible and in the meantime, that Uisce Éireann is held to account for responsiveness to outages and to communities.
The Taoiseach have roughly 11 minutes to respond.
I thank all the Deputies who raised numerous issues. Deputy McGrath raised qualifying limits and thresholds for social housing. I agree with what he said and a lot of working people, because of their income being just a bit above the income threshold, are not in a position to buy or get a mortgage or get a social house. I have spoken to the Minister for housing on this. He is actively considering increasing the income thresholds. I will pursue the issue again with the Minister. It is something that should be done and we need to do it.
Deputy McAuliffe has been very active on the ground.
He is so active that he is gone out now doing something else and meeting somebody else. He referenced the fact that there are 600 units. I was going to suggest to him that he should engage with the LDA and so will I in respect of that matter.
That is where he is gone.
Okay. It is good to see. He outlined that close to 1,000 houses have been built and now there is a further proposal for 600 houses. There is a lot happening on the housing front. We just need more and more of it and to keep the momentum going.
Deputy O'Meara asked about one-off rural housing. I accept the basic principle that on your own land or in your own community we need people to have the capacity to regenerate that community, to grow up in it, to support the clubs, to maintain a population critical mass and to keep heritage and a community vibrant. The Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, are close to new rural housing guidelines. We have discussed this. We are looking at the Gaeltacht as well. Hopefully, within the next number of weeks, we will have clarity on that and those guidelines will be brought to Cabinet.
In response to Deputy Cleere, I pay tribute to Eamon Langton as well. It is a wonderful tribute and he has joined an elite group of people. Fair play to the mayor, Councillor Coonan for his initiative in this regard. I have enjoyed their hospitality from time to time as well in the past while in Kilkenny. I note that Brian Cody was among the recipients as well. He is a good man to give a pep talk to any group of people, be they hurling or political. I do not know the man's politics at all but he is a man who speaks a lot of sense. On the rural housing guidelines, similar to Deputy O'Meara, Deputy Cleere has been championing that and arguing for it. I hope we will have the guidelines in the next fortnight or so.
In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I do not think I have the full story from him. I probably have the story from his perspective but I would be interested to know if it will definitely go for housing. A thousand houses will be built there.
Why are we selling it?
I do not know. I do not know the background to this. I do not run every council or every subsidiary of every council, nor should I.
A thousand homes.
We delegate authority to local councils that are elected by the people in the given locality to get things done, but the Oireachtas pays lip service to that idea and notion.
The elected councillors did not decide this.
Deputy, please. Be fair to other Members.
They decide the subsidiary, I imagine.
A decade.
Maybe things will get done there because, in regard to the councils on the other side, Dublin City Council had land for a long time - O'Devaney Gardens and you name it. Nothing happed there for a decade. We need people to get things moving and maybe the other side of this story, which I have not heard, is that people are anxious to get things moving here and that we could have 1,000 houses much faster than would otherwise have been the case. I do not know. I have not the specifics of it but I will follow it up.
On Deputy Quaide's question, to be fair, two of the big significant interventions in terms of dereliction have been the grants we have brought in to enable people to refurbish and bring back to life vacant houses and dilapidated or derelict houses. Up to 7,000 people have applied for those grants and they have been effective. On the Derelict Sites Act 1990, again, the local authorities have responsibility on dereliction. It is, fundamentally, a function of local authorities. I accept it has not happened with the uniformity or consistency across the country that it should have. Some councils are better than others, so the Government, in this year's budget, decided to hand responsibility to Revenue for a tax on derelict sites that would be administered by it, which will deliver a better outcome in bringing derelict buildings back into use much faster. There is a lot of mapping going on and so on, and work being done to make sure that proposal is implemented efficiently, effectively and comprehensively but it is the right direction of travel given that the Derelict Sites Act, as administered by councils over the past decade or so, has not been as effective as it should have been.
Deputy Paul Murphy raised the issue of South Dublin County Council. Again, I do not have the specifics of that. There has to be sustainability in whatever situation is there but the Deputy is saying rents will go up 53%.
For some.
Not for everybody, I presume.
No. The base rate is up 25%. Everyone is up 25%.
The Deputies are like the terrible twins over there. Please stop.
I will have to examine that and see what the position of the council is in respect of that. In regard to Limerick-----
Should the councillors not get to vote on it?
Deputy Murphy, you know it is not the format.
Council management is on it contrary to the vote of the councillors.
I ask you not to ignore me, Deputy.
I am not running the council.
But the Taoiseach agrees that the councillors should get to vote and it should be suspended until there is a vote of the council.
I ask the Taoiseach not to encourage the Deputy. I ask the Deputy to please not ignore me. There is a format here and it is Taoiseach's Questions.
On another day, the Deputy would be attacking Government if we interfered in local authorities and local government. We need to make up our mind in the Oireachtas. Do we believe in a local authority system or not? Do we believe in delegating-----
We want to give power to councillors, not council management.
Deputy, please. Be fair to other Members.
Do we believe in delegating authority to them or not?
The councillors.
Deputies are paying lip service and playing both ways as it suits.
I will come to the Deputy in regard to Limerick. Who was it?
Deputy Sheehan, yes.
I was going to say, "Get your act together there". We are providing the funding. We have asked the council to zone land. Is the Deputy saying the density is too low?
It is rhetorical.
I cannot; it is a rhetorical question. We are anxious for it and we will work with the local authority to make progress here. We have provided substantial funding. We believe the councils, generally, should be rezoning more land to get more housing. In some places, density can be an issue, where apartment blocks may not be feasible or sustainable. I do not know which is which and in that case, that needs to be reviewed. Our view is a far more flexible approach needs to be adopted.
That is my point.
I thank the Deputy. We are on the one page in respect of that. I will talk to the Minister about that and ask him to talk to the Deputy.
In response to Deputy Whitmore's question, I am working with the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. The plan has been recently concluded, chaired by Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin. It is a fine, comprehensive plan that lays out a roadmap to preserve and enhance our biodiversity and habitats. I have met with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Minister of State, and they have a plan on how the funding can be built up but it will not all be spent immediately or in one year. We are making progress. We have to have further discussions within Government to try to earmark over the next five years allocations of money from the nature fund for the implementation of this plan. That is the work I have under way. I know the Minister of State is working strongly with us and the relevant Ministers to bring that over the line.
We have established the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. Some €2 billion went to the metro initially, and probably more. We also need to do funding for nature. Some of the good European Union projects will come to an end. They have been very effective. I refer to the lapwing and others. We are making a lot of progress as well on some fronts but we need to do it on a sustained basis over the next decade or so. There has to be a sustainable funding framework to enable us to restore biodiversity and really make progress. That will have benefits for farmers as well. It is a way of supplementing income for farmers, particularly on the western seaboard, in the north west and so on. I see a lot of potential here for harmony. Farmers signed up to this as well. The number of non-governmental organisations that endorsed the plan was also remarkable.
Deputy O'Rourke talked about the need for investment. There is a plan there for investment in Duleek and Stamullen, he said, and we will certainly work to activate that plan and to make sure to prioritise the funding there. The investment is planned for there. As the Deputy knows, the Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, has been working on faster delivery of infrastructure and so forth to make sure things get done much more quickly.
Thank you, Taoiseach. We will have an extra minute and a half on the next question, which is to ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will meet next. That will give Members a minute each.
Happy days.
I know.
Cabinet Committees
Martin Daly
Question:17. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [14279/26]
Pádraig O'Sullivan
Question:18. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [14280/26]
Erin McGreehan
Question:19. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [14283/26]
Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:20. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [28190/26]
Louis O'Hara
Question:21. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [32049/26]
Liam Quaide
Question:22. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [38777/26]
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:23. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [38898/26]
Paul Murphy
Question:24. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [38901/26]
Ruth Coppinger
Question:25. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [38904/26]
Cian O'Callaghan
Question:26. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [39721/26]
Jennifer Whitmore
Question:27. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet [39726/26]
Darren O'Rourke
Question:28. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [42078/26]
Mark Wall
Question:29. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will meet next. [42081/26]
Peadar Tóibín
Question:30. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [42220/26]
Paul McAuliffe
Question:31. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [43025/26]
Barry Heneghan
Question:32. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [43621/26]
Mark Ward
Question:33. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [43624/26]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 33, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on disability has been established to oversee the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of disability, with specific focus on children's disability services, as well as disability more generally under the Government' s new national human rights strategy for disabled people for 2025 to 2030.
Under the programme for Government, we are committed to delivering a step change in disability services and to advancing the rights and improving the lives of people with disabilities. To deliver on this, I established a stand-alone Cabinet committee on disability. This committee has met eight times to date, most recently on 27 April and it is due to meet again shortly. To date, the committee has considered issues, including the new national human rights strategy for disabled people, the provision of therapists in special schools, improving the delivery of services and reform of the assessment of need process.
Despite the committed efforts of so many working to provide services, and significant increases in funding and resources in recent years, we acknowledge that we can and have to do better and do more.
Reflecting the importance of disability issues, I have established a dedicated disability unit in my Department. An initial programme plan for the unit has been published, outlining the work of the unit, including its role supporting the Cabinet committee on disability and ensuring a truly all-of-government approach to disability, as set out in the new national disability strategy. The Government's new National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030 was published in September 2025. That is the framework for the whole-of-government approach to addressing disability. It represents our commitment and ambition that all disabled people in Ireland can live the life of their choosing and participate in their communities and our society to the fullest extent possible.
In budget 2026, we have taken initial steps to deliver on this commitment, with a strong focus on investment in both specialist disability services and mainstream services. A record €3.8 billion allocation to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality for specialist disability services represents a 20% increase in funding for disability services, which will improve both sustainability of the sector and delivery of residential, respite and therapy services for children and adults. The disabilities workforce is growing year on year, and budget 2026 will allow for further targeted expansion in the workforce across key services. Funding has been allocated for an additional 945 whole-time equivalents, which will bring the disability workforce to almost 23,600 by the end of this year.
Special education also saw record investment under budget 2026, totalling €3 billion, which will see an additional 860 special education teachers, SETs, appointed along with more than 1,700 additional special needs assistants, SNAs. A national therapy service in education has been established, commencing in special schools and subsequently extending gradually to schools with special classes and mainstream provision. As announced by the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, in early February this year, the first 45 special schools to benefit from this service have been selected and are based in clusters in counties Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Louth, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Meath, Monaghan, Tipperary, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow. Further roll-out of the service will occur on a phased basis with a wider roll-out to special schools commencing in the 2026-27 school year.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
It is planned that this service will be extended to special classes and mainstream classes following the roll-out to special schools. Initially the service will include occupational therapy and speech and language therapy services. Over time further disciplines such as physiotherapy may be included. A recruitment campaign for senior and staff grade occupational therapists and speech and language therapists has recently taken place to support the 45 schools in the initial phase. Posts are currently being offered and it is expected that the first therapists will be in post very shortly. In all, we expect there will be almost 290 staff supporting the overall education therapy service. This service is not a replacement for existing services; rather, it will work in an integrated and complementary way with existing services, recognising that special schools support children with complex needs.
Other initiatives to support a whole-of-government approach to disability include increased investment in housing adaptation grants and in the public transport retrofit programme, along with enhanced supports for employers for the employment of disabled people. In addition, budget 2026 also contained targeted and mainstream social protection measures which will support households with disabilities, including increases in weekly rates, expansion of eligibility to schemes and amendments to income disregards for carers. Budget 2026 is a first step in the Government's ambition to deliver the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. I believe we have made a strong start in year one of our programme of work and investment. I am determined that this will be a government that moves forward with purpose, in improving the level and scale of support for disabled people and their families.
I am aware of the Taoiseach's commitment to the matter of disability and the establishment of the unit in his Department, and the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley's, commitment to improving the lot of people who live with disability in Ireland. We have met groups of parents whose main concern and apprehension is the care of their vulnerable offspring when they are not around anymore, either through incapacity or death, which happens to us all eventually, and the expectation that their siblings will take on that care without negotiation and without any hope or respite in planning for their accommodation as they get older, whether it is in full residential care, supervised care or in community and local authority housing that is is suitably supported.
My question is fairly straightforward. We understand the pressures that disability services are under right across the country. They are more acutely felt in certain regions and there are black spots around the country that have been well-documented in many of our clinics. There is a particularly acute problem with therapies in Cork, as the Taoiseach is well aware. A post for disability clinical lead for the country was advertised a number of months ago. My understanding is a number of people were interviewed, but the post was not filled. They were not deemed to be satisfactory, which is fine, but this post has been left unfilled for a number of month. When will that post be readvertised? It needs to be filled urgently.
I appreciate the Taoiseach's Department's ongoing work on disability. One aspect that is often overlooked is funding to support local authorities to have disability access officers and funding to back up their work by making accessibility a default and improving the quality of life for many people, including their access to towns and villages. I would like to see dedicated funding for those people.
I raise the case of Paudie Cody from north Cork. As the Taoiseach knows, the Cody family has already suffered the devastating loss of Paudie's younger brother, Rory, to Friedreich's ataxia. Paudie, who is 16, is living with the same cruel condition and his health is deteriorating. I welcome the compassion the Taoiseach showed in meeting Paudie's father, Craig, in recent days and his commitment to do everything he can to help secure access to Skyclarys for Paudie and other patients who may benefit from it. I also acknowledge the strong advocacy of the Taoiseach's colleague, Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan, on this. I join other TDs, including Deputy O'Sullivan, in asking that this commitment be followed through with real urgency and that Paudie and other patients are not left waiting. There is a wider injustice here. The reimbursement system too often leaves families trapped in a process where time is lost as a condition progresses. Will the Taoiseach exhaust all efforts to try to bring forward the HSE drugs group discussion on Skyclarys from July to June so that Paudie and his family are not waiting unnecessarily any longer?
Tomorrow, there is another protest by Northside Home Care Services workers who have been engaging in a series of one-day protests and strikes over the fact that they did not benefit from the pay increases arising from the section 39 Workplace Relations Commission decision on pay restoration. Many of these workers used to be paid on a par with HSE workers. Now, they are on rates barely above the minimum wage. There are thousands of them. This is one group of 80. Their shop steward has been disciplined because of their engagement in the process and suspended.
By who?
By the not-for-profit company that provides services to the HSE. I met some of these other workers, doing the same thing. There are thousands of these people, all across the country, on poverty pay rates, who did not get the pay increase that other section 39 workers got. They are very angry and it is not fair. There should not be pay apartheid for home care workers.
I raise the matter of a group of children who are being left behind by this Government. Those are children with mild or moderate learning disabilities and complex needs. Mothers of children with Down's syndrome have written to me to express how abandoned they feel. They say that the Government is intentionally misleading people by talking about special classes when 89% of those classes are designed for children with autism. It is welcome that we are getting autism classes but the Government should be honest about that. When the Government announced in March that it was sanctioning 387 new special classes, only one was a general learning disability class. Of course, it is welcome to have some recognition by the Government of the needs of autistic children and their right to education but children with Down's syndrome have an equal right to education appropriate to their needs. An hour a day of special education support in mainstream does not provide that. Will the Taoiseach raise this? Will the Government commit to opening more general learning disability classes?
I ask the Taoiseach about St. Francis Junior School in Dublin 17. It is a DEIS+ school that is losing a teacher this year. This is based on pupil numbers on 30 September last year. It is just one pupil short. This coming year, it will be over the threshold of pupil numbers, so this cut makes no sense at all. In 2020, in a similar situation, the Minister for Education intervened and a teacher was kept on a one-year fixed-term contract, which solved the school's problems. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for Education and Youth to look at this again and intervene?
I raise a new special school that was announced for St. Fergal's in Bray. It was welcome news when this school was announced earlier this year. It will accommodate 18 to 24 students, beginning in September 2026. However, there has been radio silence about the school since. There has been no information for parents about how to apply and whether they will get places. The Taoiseach knows that children need to be prepared to start school in September. Indeed, parents have work to do to get a child ready for school. It is completely unacceptable that there has been no information locally about how parents can apply and whether they will get places in this school. I would appreciate it if the Taoiseach would raise that with the Minister.
Children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Ireland are still denied access to givinostat, a transformative drug. I understand that the HSE drugs group is to meet tomorrow, 10 June, to consider givinostat for reimbursement. This is after more than a year since it was licensed at European level.
A number of serious criteria need to be met in relation to it, principal among these is that the eligibility criteria would be aligned with the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, NICE, approach ensuring access for boys who can walk or who can stand with or without support to ensure Irish boys are not treated differently from their British or European counterparts.
I wish to raise St. Anne's Special School in the Curragh, County Kildare. It has been waiting ten years for a new school building. The project remains at stage 2b design, and planning permission is due to expire next year. The Taoiseach will appreciate there is very little time for the school to get shovels into the ground and start building. There is only one accessible bathroom for 40 students in the school. More than a dozen children, who are wheelchair users, have no access to inclusive equipment on the grounds at lunchtime or breaks. Due to the current condition of the school, the day-to-day operational costs are now diverting funding from essential educational and sensory equipment. I ask that the Taoiseach follow up with the Minister for education on this important project for St. Anne’s Special School in the Curragh.
I want to raise the Disability (Amendment) Bill. While the Government presents this legislation as reform, the details suggest a significant shift in how children will be able to access assessments and services. The Bill gives authority to an assessment officer to formally determine whether a child has a qualifying disability before a full clinical assessment to the medical needs can begin. This represents a fundamental change. It places the decision on eligibility at the very start of the process rather than allowing clinicians to assess need and determine diagnosis based on examination. It is my understanding that the assessment officers will be administrative officials. They will not have medical practitioner experience or they will not be therapists, yet under these proposal they are being given the central role in deciding whether a child proceeds to a full assessment. Does the Taoiseach agree with AsIAm, the Disability Federation Ireland and Inclusion Ireland which have warned that this could operate as a filtering mechanism, limiting the numbers entering the system, rather than resolving delays?
The Northside Home Care Services workers are on strike again tomorrow. I submitted a parliamentary question two months ago which was followed up by another one because I could not get an answer. It was followed up by another one which eventually revealed that the Northside Home Care employers were invited by the Department’s own agent to apply for the WRC pay agreement only to be excluded afterwards because of the HSE’s procurement model. The workers have fallen into a Government-created loophole.
On my way to the Chamber, I met Emily Felix who is looking for the drug for Friedreich's ataxia. I know the HSE is meeting tomorrow. I would love for that to be examined.
I want to raise the waiting times for therapies for children’s disability network teams. A couple of weeks ago, I raised the unacceptable waiting time for children in Lucan for speech and language therapy. The average is a two-year wait. I thought that was bad until I received a response yesterday about a four-year-old boy from Clondalkin who will be waiting five years before he gets speech and language therapy. Every expert will say that early intervention is key. One of the worst jobs for TDs across this House is when you have to send a response back to a parent. It is really upsetting as a TD but that pales into insignificance compared to what the parent in receipt of that letter experiences when they receive news that their four-year-old child will not get an appointment for speech and language therapy until they are nine years old. What will the Government do about this?
That concludes the contributions. There are just over nine minutes for the Taoiseach to reply to the 12 Deputies.
I thank all the Deputies for raising these very important questions here.
On Deputy Martin Daly’s question, I have also met the group, Before We Die, in relation to vulnerable adult children and the fear and anxiety of parents in terms of providing for them if they were to pass from this world. The Minister for housing has met the Minister of State for disability. The Minister for housing is instructing local authorities to build and to have a quota in every scheme for people with disabilities in the first instance and not do so on the basis that if they get wraparound services, they will build a house. They must just go and build it. We will have to put pressure on the HSE side, on the healthcare side, to make sure there are supports. The local authority will have to work proactively with the families and the health service to make sure the appropriate balance of care is provided. A lot of people with disabilities are in the position to manage so a continuum of care is required here. The last meeting of the disability group discussed this in some considerable detail. Having met the Before We Die group, it was clear the parents were being asked to jump hurdles that were really not appropriate, in my view. We should be more proactive as a State in helping them along this journey to try to provide for their children - particularly on the accommodation side. I met one parent who said her two sons could manage quite well with a bit of support and did not need anything too extraordinary. Others would need far more intensive care in a residential environment.
We also have to get the balance right between decongregation and new provision because if all the resources just go into decongregation, there are no resources for new provision. We have to try to work with all concerned in trying to find a way through this. I am just being honest and open here. The current situation is not sustainable - I am very clear about that. Both Departments are now working together to try to unblock that for the families concerned.
On Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan’s question, I will have to check. My understanding was that progress was being made in terms of the lead positions. On the national disability lead, I will talk to the Minister in respect of that. I will come back to the Deputy on that.
Deputy McGreehan raised disability access officers. That is a potentially powerful catalyst in every local authority area with the right people recruited who could look at the full range of policies across a local authority from housing to pedestrian access to roads to access to buildings to ensure the entire philosophy of local authorities is imbued with implementing the human-rights based strategy for disabled people. I will revert to the Deputy on where we are on that and the coverage across the country. It is something the Government is interested in expanding.
On Deputy Quaide's contribution, I met Craig Coady yesterday with Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan. It was a very heartrending meeting. What the family has gone through is quite shocking. I have spoken to the Minister about this. We will do everything we can to accelerate consideration of Skyclarys provision. It was never scheduled for tomorrow but I think Givinostat is. However, we are hoping we can bring forward consideration of Skyclarys by the HSE's drugs group. We have about 200 families who are living with Friedreich's ataxia. I am very conscious of this as is the Minister. For the record of the House, I laid out earlier the information I was provided with in terms of the engagement between the HSE and the company. What is more important now is that we try to get this over the line as quickly as we possibly can in accordance with the procedures and processes that are laid out. Time is running out for many people, not least young Paudie himself who needs this as fast as we possibly can provide it. The Minister is taking other actions as well to make sure that if a positive decision was to emerge in the next number of weeks, we could make sure a green light could be given.
Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the Northside Home Care issue. Obviously, the industrial relations can be quite complex in terms section 39 organisations and WRC agreements. Every decision taken in relation to any one group does not stay with the one group. It has read across to other scenarios as well. I do not know whether that is the core issue here in terms of the nature of Northside Home Care and whether structure of it is the problem in terms of the application of the section 39 resolution of this through the WRC, which took a considerable length of time following the public service pay agreement. Deputy Heneghan also raised this. I will endeavour to engage with the Department of public expenditure on this and with all concerned to see if we can find a way to deal with this.
There are a lot more affected than just those 80 workers.
That is the point. That is what invariably happens with industrial relations so that may be the factor here.
I accept Deputy Paul Murphy's general point. The incidence of autism seems to have grown dramatically. Although some say it is better diagnosed, I am not so sure any more. The numbers are significant in terms of expansion of services in health, but particularly in education. Even this year it has been significant. In the most recent census, in comparison with the previous one, there has been an exponential increase in adults and children declaring a disability. There is a challenge that in the overarching focus on autism, other disabilities perhaps do not get the same attention or focus. General disability special classes are important, such as for Down's syndrome. There are good organisations that advocate for Down's syndrome. The Government works well with them. However, it is something I will raise with the Minister to see whether we have a proper audit of the provision of service and there is a sufficiency of service for those with mild or moderate learning disabilities.
Deputy O'Callaghan raised St. Francis school. It was raised earlier in the Order of Business, presumably by his Sinn Féin constituency colleague. Apparently it went through the independent appeals process. It is one pupil short of the criteria governing the appointment of teachers and the enrolment numbers. I will raise it with the Minister, but the Minister made it clear to the Deputy that the independent appeals process made a decision on it. I do not know whether or not it is a growing population area or there is some manoeuvrability for the decision makers.
Deputy Whitmore raised a new special school for Wicklow. I will have to follow up on that. Is she saying absolutely nothing has happened since then?
They have not heard anything.
They have not heard anything. I will follow up because it is now June. If people want to get enrolled by September something has to happen. I will raise it with the Minister of State, Michael Moynihan and the Minister, Hildegarde Naughton.
Deputy O'Rourke said the meeting to consider the drug for Duchenne is tomorrow. I hope we will get a positive outcome from that and can make progress. There has been a fair degree of representation and advocacy in that regard from both Houses.
Deputy Wall raised St. Anne's special school in the Curragh. That is a new school project. It is at stage 2B. We will engage with the Minister in respect of that. This is a special school that needs to be provided.
Deputy Tóibín heard Deputy Mark Ward and others talking about access to services. The existing system is not working at all. In fact, it is exacerbating the situation. It has meant there are fewer therapists available for services than for assessments. We are trying to get a more common-sense approach to this, so that the preponderance of therapy would be allocated to children in the earlier stages and they would have access to the therapists much earlier than they have currently. We need to do more, look at how therapists are deployed and ask how we can get the maximum outcomes from interventions.
Deputy Heneghan raised the northside home care workers, which I spoke about earlier. I also spoke about Friedreich's ataxia. I will come back to him about the home care workers; I think I have already outlined to Deputy Quaide and other Deputies the situation with Friedreich's ataxia.
Deputy Ward raised waiting times for disabilities. Early intervention is key. That is why we are doing the reforms that we are doing. Not everybody likes it, but we believe it is better to do it the way we are proposing so we get the therapies to the people faster and get earlier interventions than is currently the case.
Questions Nos. 1 to 33, inclusive, taken orally.
Questions Nos. 34 to 41, inclusive, resubmitted.
Question No. 42 taken with Writtens.
Questions Nos. 43 to 100, inclusive, resubmitted.
Question No. 101 taken with Writtens.
Questions Nos. 102 to 114, inclusive, resubmitted.
Question No. 115 taken with Writtens.
Questions No. 116 to 118, inclusive, resubmitted.