Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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According to the NTA report just published, complaints of antisocial behaviour on the Luas have more than doubled in the last year and are now at their highest level in a decade. The number of complaints about antisocial behaviour made to the call centre rose from 1,001 in 2022 to 2,159 last year, which is an increase of 116%. The figures show that commuters feel unsafe around Luas stops in particular and that women are more likely to feel unsafe than men. Sinn Féin has committed to the establishment of a dedicated transport unit within An Garda Síochána. I ask the Minister to respond to these findings. Has she plans to establish this much-needed dedicated transport unit?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, it is the Commissioner who is responsible for delegating the resources that he or potentially she has at his or her disposal. The Commissioner has been clear in saying that additional resources have been allocated within the Dublin region, specifically regarding the Luas, train stations and areas where there have been problems. Additional gardaí have been allocated. He has made it very clear that he does not believe there is a need for a specialist unit within the Garda. However, allocating specific gardaí to deal with any issues that may arise is certainly responding to any challenge that may be there on public transport.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I want to return to the issue of disability rights and autism services. As the Minister knows, Deputy Alan Kelly, our Labour Party colleagues and I have been working for some time with the amazing young autism campaigner, Cara Darmody, and her family. Indeed, we put down a motion in Private Members’ time last year on the need to address the appalling delays in assessments of need for children who need autism services. Cara is outside the front of Leinster House today. I am glad the Taoiseach has agreed to meet Cara. When I raised it with him on 17 April in this House and sought a meeting, he committed at that point to meet with her. I hope the meeting will be productive. Cara is seeking a Government commitment to address the untenable delays for children in securing assessments of need. When will we see a meaningful timeline for the implementation of a national autism empowerment strategy? It is something that we in Labour have sought for a long time. We have spoken with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on numerous occasions in this House. Until we see that, Cara's work campaign will have to continue.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for the question on the autism innovation strategy. It is in its final stages and we hope to have it published within the next three weeks. It is not just within the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth but the autism innovation strategy takes a cross-government approach. I look forward to having it launched and to sharing it with Cara, Deputy Bacik and all Members within the next three weeks.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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It was in September of last year that the Minister launched the community safety partnership for Dublin's north inner city. Contained in that document were 51 action points, one of which was a strong Garda presence in the area, and we all accept that has failed. Another was keeping public spaces safe. To see the evidence of the success of this, I would ask the Minister to go to the Blessington Basin or Diamond Park. Another action point was to deal with the rise in hate crime. There has been a 12% increase in hate-related crimes across the State and a 44% increase in the Dublin metropolitan area. I have a simple question. Given the document that the Minister released last year at the start of the Dáil session, as we approach the end, which of those 51 action points would the Minister say she has succeeded with in her Department?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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First, this is a plan that has been drawn up by the community. The whole basis for the community partnerships is that it is not just focused on gardaí when it comes to safety, but the people in the community who know the community and understand the needs of the community come together with the local authority, with the Garda, with education, with the HSE and with supports more broadly and put together a plan. It also includes public representatives but, unfortunately, the Deputy and others have not really engaged with this plan.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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We were not offered the chance.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Everybody has been offered the opportunity to engage with this. It is very important that the community are empowered through the partnerships to identify what they need. Many of these actions have been implemented, many have been supported with funding and many are seed projects that will then lead on to something more substantial. However, it is very important that as the initial three pilots were assessed and as we now roll them out, they have full buy-in and support from everybody in the community, including our public representatives. It does not just happen overnight. Dealing with issues of safety and longer-term issues of dealing with addiction, resourcing and investment in communities take time. That is exactly what the plan’s objective is.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am delighted to have the opportunity to directly ask the Minister about the domestic violence strategy following on from the Women's Aid report yesterday. Only two weeks ago, a report that was commissioned through the work of Councillor Hazel de Nortúin in Cherry Orchard was published on the domestic violence strategy for that area. The place was packed and there was a huge amount of interest in it. This is an issue right across society. There is huge concern when we see the alarming rise in disclosures to Women's Aid, the highest in its 50-year history. In 2023, another nine women died in violent circumstances in this country. There is an urgency about it. I heard the Minister here and in Cherry Orchard argue that she was going to make this the key priority of her term as Minister but we still have nine counties without a refuge, we are still far short of the Istanbul Convention recommendation and we are still seeing a rise in domestic violence that is off the Richter scale. In the remaining bit of the term that the Minister has left before there is a general election, what can she commit to really doing? I do not mean just throwing money at it but opening up spaces for the safety of women in particular.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I too read the report from Cherry Orchard, which was harrowing. The report yesterday from Women's Aid shows how much of an epidemic this is. It should be something that we all treat as an emergency. What is very welcome from the figures yesterday is that more women are coming forward and they feel they can come forward. Because of the discussions we have had in this House and the emphasis the Government has placed on this issue, women feel safe to come forward and to move away from their abusers.

One of the key recommendations in the zero tolerance strategy and the work that has been taken on by the new domestic violence agency is the delivery of refuge spaces. We have 150 at the moment and we have committed to doubling that with a further 150 in the lifetime of the strategy. We are still in the early stages of the strategy. We have three projects under way. In particular, Wexford will come on stream probably around September this year and additional spaces at Navan and Dundalk are also being progressed. For the nine other counties, one of the biggest challenges is that there have not been service providers there and there has not been a natural fit to develop those services. What I have done is make sure the system is re-engineered so that where we do not have services, they can be identified and progressed as quickly as possible. A number of those counties have that work progressing. While I do not have timelines for them, there is progress happening in all of those and the ambition is still to double the number of refuges, including the nine counties without a refuge, in the lifetime of the strategy.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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The processing of grant of probate is currently taking 17 to 20 weeks on average. I have been contacted on a regular basis, as I am sure many Members of the House have been, by constituents frustrated by the delays, especially when they need to sell a property or asset and the sale is being held up. Earlier this year, the property agent Lisney said that continuing delays in the Probate Office will affect the housing market this year. As probate sales account for at least one third of the supply in the housing market, understandably, buyers are reluctant to engage with properties that could be held up for months waiting for a grant of probate to issue. This adds further unnecessary pressure to the housing market. I understand some delays are a result of errors in documents being submitted. I ask the Minister to consider recruiting more staff to deal with the backlog of probate cases and that she would also consider reinstating the public counter in the Probate Office, which was closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and has not reopened since that time.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the frustration. I have had many people come to me, particularly about the long delays and the implications for them personally, but also in terms of the overall market. The best way we can address this is by moving towards a digitalised system. We are not there yet. Work is under way through my Department, working with the Courts Service and with significant investment behind it, on the modernisation programme. Separately, the former Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, just before Christmas last year established a committee to look at conveyancing as well as probate and to make sure we have representatives from all of the different sectors and those impacted by this. As to what further progress can be made, when we move to a more digital system, it will mean we can have automated validation of information so people do not have incorrect information that is potentially going through a paper trail that takes much longer, but also that people will be able to track and follow their application in a way they cannot at the moment. That work is under way. I appreciate it is frustrating for people but there is a huge amount of work involved.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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On a day when Áine Donnelly, a former garda, and her former Garda colleagues are visiting the Dáil, many of them of the rank of inspector or superintendent, I wish to speak on behalf of the gardaí of Clonmel in south Tipperary. The Garda station in Clonmel is Dickensian, with no sign of it going to tender. We also have the worst numbers ever in Clonmel. Carrick-on-Suir has three gardaí and two sergeants when it used to have 14 gardaí. It is the same in Cahir and Cashel districts and in Tipperary town. When are we going to get the Garda resources we need? Not only that, they are being called to Dublin and to many other areas and they are doing overtime. The people there are under huge pressure, although they are excellent people doing an excellent job. The crime rate in Clonmel and the antisocial behaviour are appalling but they just do not have the physical numbers there, in Carrick-on-Suir or in any of the other areas I have referenced.

It has never been as bad. I do not want to give out these figures but they are the actual figures. It is a disastrous situation. We need new gardaí and extra gardaí and recruits. They are all going to Dublin now. We are getting none.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I agree that we need more gardaí. I want more gardaí. The Deputy wants more gardaí. I commend the work of the gardaí we have. Many of the actions I am taking in the Department are to make sure we can attract and retain more gardaí: increasing the retirement age, increasing the age at which people can join, increasing the allowance they have in college and making sure we have the highest budget ever, with a 23% increase. Where gardaí go is a matter for the Garda Commissioner but as more graduates come through the college, we will have more in the coming weeks coming out of Templemore. We have a new class going in in the next two weeks. As the classes get higher in number - and they have been increasing, with trainees entering every 12 weeks - those gardaí will be going right across the country.

The Deputy will be aware that Clonmel and Macroom had been part of a PPP. They were taken away from that. Additional funding has been allocated and that project is progressing.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I am glad the Minister for Justice is here because I am returning to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. The Department and the Government were under statutory duty to have an independent review of it in 2020. Four years later, that review has not been carried out and since then a decision has been made to depart from an independent review and have the Department's data and research unit do that. I have serious reservations about that. Is the Department on track now to have that completed in autumn, as a previous reply said? Will the review be published, and can the Minister give us a date?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate that this has gone on longer than anybody would like. We are on track to have this done by autumn. The report will be published in time. The reason we had to move it back to officials within the Department is because of the changes that had to take place. The independent person who had been appointed was not finishing it. There was then a tender set out to look at other potential options, none of which were satisfactory, so my Department has taken it on to make sure it is completed. A huge body of the work had been done. I assure the Deputy that the work is still on track and that the review will be published.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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At a time of disharmony, protest and even, sometimes, the horrible burning of accommodation facilities, I have something unique here: a petition signed by 500 people in Shannon, County Clare, asking the Government to keep Phoenix House, a Ukrainian war refugee centre, open and to extend the contract beyond this Friday. It has been a wonderful home to almost 200 Ukrainian refugees for the past two years. I have letters from employers and local schools. It would be so disruptive to close this facility on Friday. So many of the residents will go from employment to unemployment when they are moved to Lisdoonvarna. So many students currently at school, many of them sitting their junior certificate or leaving certificate examinations this week, will be totally disrupted. I brought this to the Minister, Roderic O'Gorman. There are only 48 hours left. There is a community, there are employers, there are trade unions and there are politicians united, asking that this facility remain open. There have been minor compliance issues - and I have done my own research into that - but this needs to happen. Hats off to this community in Shannon, County Clare. I want to mention Joanne Begley and Siobhán Boyd, the leadership they have shown and the leadership the community has shown, but this will require ministerial intervention.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I echo the Deputy's acknowledgment of the community's efforts and the community's backing of the Ukrainians living there. We see this across the country. It does not get coverage. Maybe in situations such as this it does, but this is the story across the country. There are compliance issues. We have to take them very seriously. That said, we have been cognisant of the fact that people have started lives in the community. In particular as regards the exam situation the Deputy mentioned, we have brought that into play. People should be able to finish their school year and exams, but there is a compliance issue and we have to take it seriously. The majority of people who will be moved will find accommodation in County Clare.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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I want to raise the issue of public health nurse, PHN, shortages. There is a general problem with a lack of public health nurses in many areas, but in my constituency, the public health centre on Old County Road has issued a letter that it is suspending developmental checks. Developmental checks conducted by PHNs are an incredibly important part of early intervention and of identifying problems for young people, children and families. The loss of developmental checks is an incredible worry and is simply storing up problems for the future. Can we address the need and the public health nurse shortages in general? In particular, Old County Road suspending developmental checks is a grave risk to the community. I hope the HSE, with Government intervention, will address the staff shortages there as quickly as possible.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this really important issue, which has been raised previously on the floor of the Dáil. Public health nurses for young people, young babies and older people are hugely important the length and breadth of the country. We have been challenged, especially in areas of County Dublin and the city, in being able to facilitate the employment of public health nurses. This has been raised with the Department of Health and the HSE. They are actively trying to recruit into these areas. I think everybody is in agreement as to how important public health nurses are, especially for developmental checks. My understanding is that the HSE will try to put in place interim measures in the short term but I will ask for a written response to the Deputy.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I want to raise the issue of school transport. There are a number of schools in my area, in Cavan, including a DEIS school in Cavan town, St. Clare's, with no school transport system in place. Yet some students live quite a distance from the school and require transport. They are being told they are not eligible because they live too close to the school or are not attending the nearest school. Most children leaving Castlerahan national school will attend St. Oliver Post Primary School, Oldcastle. Again, they are being told they are not eligible for school transport. Children in the Muff area, outside Kingscourt, who want to attend Coláiste Dún an Rí, Kingscourt, have the same issue. Roads are too narrow and too dangerous to travel on. The parents are working. We need a school transport system that will bring the students to school. The school transport review has recommended that the Department phase out the distance requirement and the requirement to attend one's nearest school. Can that be expedited? There is talk of a number of pilot projects for this September on putting school transport in situations under those new criteria. How are those pilot areas being selected?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I think we can all see this in our constituencies, particularly over the summer months. I refer to the challenges and the parents who get on to us because of a lack of space or because of their inability to get their children on the school buses. The Deputy is right that changes are being proposed to take away some of the distance requirements and other measures. I will have to come back to her on a timeline as to how that will be rolled out, but the objective of the Minister is to make sure that any child who needs a space on a bus, to either his or her nearest school or the school he or she is attending, can, insofar as possible, get that. I will come back to the Deputy with more details if I can.

Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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As a State, we are miles behind our EU counterparts in supporting the development of domestic football. Our League of Ireland academies lack funding, lack modern facilities and lack full-time staff. Irish football academies have just ten full-time staff covering them. In comparison, Portugal has 315 staff dedicated to its academies. It is little wonder Portugal is sixth in FIFA rankings. It sees the reward for investing in its young players and domestic league. If we want to be serious about our men's Irish teams ever again competing on the world stage, we need to invest in our footballing academies. It is not a handout; it is an investment. Given that the Government coffers are overflowing, will the Government invest in supporting Irish football and Irish footballing academies?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I think we would all like to see our men's and women's teams do well, but there could not be any suggestion that this Government does not support sporting organisations. Hundreds of millions of euro have been invested in sporting organisations the length and breadth of the country, including soccer clubs or football clubs overall. As regards investing specifically in individual organisations, the Government supports sporting organisations of all kinds. There has to be good governance, and we have to ensure that the funding is spent where it is supposed to be spent, but at all times the Government will work with and engage with the various representative bodies to make sure that players, importantly, get the funding and the support they need.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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Garda recruitment is an issue that keeps cropping up. I want to talk specifically about community gardaí and the need for extra resources in that area.

I know the Minister visited west Cork recently and in my constituency, the Clonakilty community garda covers an area which includes Clonakilty, Dunmanway and Skibbereen. That is a huge geographical area. The same can be said for the Bandon area, where the Minister visited. That is a massive geographical area and the scale of the work they do is absolutely incredible. Recently, I met the community garda in Bandon. She was in a school I was visiting and she was doing incredible work in informing kids about the dangers of online abuse and potential exploitation online. It is extraordinarily important work and they need to be supported. They need extra resources. There needs to be at least two community gardaí in big geographical areas like this. Is that something the Minister can look into?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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First, I commend the work of An Garda Síochána. I particularly wish to thank the work of community gardaí. They provide vital support within communities. We saw how important their work is throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in particular in visiting people and looking after those who are more vulnerable. I refer to the day-to-day work they do in supporting organisations, committees and in dealing with issues like antisocial behaviour. They are the people to whom you can pick up the phone to call if an issue arises. We all wish to see more community gardaí. The way to achieve that is through having more gardaí overall. That is one of my highest objectives in the Department. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of measures are being put in place to make sure we can recruit more gardaí, as well as retain the ones we have. The fact that 6,400 people applied last year alone, on top of the 5,000 people who applied in the previous year, shows it is a role which people want.

Part of the new operational model is in making sure we have community policing teams in all of the various operating areas. We need to populate them with additional gardaí. The overall objective is that every area will have a specific garda who people know and to whom people can pick up the phone to ring on any community-based issue. That is the overall objective but it will take time to get to that point.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The US Surgeon General sought a tobacco-style labelling on social media this week. He cited the damage to mental health and well-being for younger people due to high levels of exposure to social media which damages self-esteem, causes feelings of depression and a decline in the quality and quantity of their relationships, particularly for young women. He cited that these are not a failure of willpower or parenting, but rather the unleashing of powerful technologies without adequate safety measures.

There are two questions I wish to pose. Should we ask the ESRI, which has the Growing Up in Ireland database, to explore the impact of social media exposure to young people in Ireland? Given the EU approach to putting the onus on platforms, are the Irish platforms assessing the risk of exposure, or uncontrolled exposure in some cases, to young people on social media?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Government, through the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and her Department has established Coimisiún na Meán. This is something which Deputy Bruton started himself in the Department to look at the harmful element of social media. While we all know how great social media can be, particularly in the context of our own work in engaging with younger people, the harms are clear for us to see also. It is a good idea that we look at the impact of social media and that the ESRI carries out that work. That is something the Minister could or should take on board.

As for the platforms themselves, by establishing Coimisiún na Meán, we have said clearly that the days of self-regulation are over. There should be and is already close engagement between Coimisiún na Meán and the platforms to make sure they have the right mechanisms in place to try to prevent the type of harmful behaviours we see on social media having an impact on young people. A broader picture and piece of work needs to be done. That is certainly something I would support.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister will be aware of the "RTÉ Investigates" programme last week showing the horrific abuse of horses. I welcome the shutdown of the abattoir and the investigation that is now under way. However, many of us will still remember the horrific abuse of calves that was witnessed on "RTÉ Investigates" last year. I have been seeking updates on that investigation and I was informed this morning that they are still gathering evidence nearly a year later. If that is the length of time investigations take, how long will we be waiting for the investigation now under way on the horrific abuse of horses we saw last week?

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I can reassure Deputy Kerrane the Department of agriculture takes the issue of animal welfare, for which it has responsibility for, extremely seriously. While we cannot reference or specifically refer to individual cases that may be before the courts or are likely to be before the courts in the future, in terms of the overall approach to welfare, we are all horrified by the scenes we saw on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme last week. I commend RTÉ on the work it did in highlighting that specific case. A very active investigation is happening at the minute.

In terms of calf welfare, a huge number of processes and different measures are in place including significant funding streams to support that sector. It is something we take really seriously and will continue to do into the future.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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The people of Borrisokane bucked a trend in 2019 when they took in and welcomed 96 international protection applicants in the Riverside apartments, which included 27 primary school children. They now have status but are actually being evicted. The Minister's Department, in November 2019, sent and signed an agreement with them and with the liaison committee in Borrisokane stating that once they had HAP, they could stay in the apartments. The Government is now reneging on this.

I attended a large protest meeting last Friday night. In fairness, the Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, also was in attendance. The people of Borrisokane, uniquely in this country and unlike anywhere else, are going to fight to keep the 96 new arrivals in their town. That is a good story and one that is unique. However, we have a situation in which they are being evicted. The reality is that this is going to create a dangerous precedent. What it is really saying is that the commercialisation of human suffering and the promotion of greed will take precedent because the Government will support taking out these applicants, who have status, to put in new applicants, as there is greater profit in it than actually allowing them to use HAP. When will this policy be reversed to ensure that integration means integration permanently and not just while it is profitable?

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Deputy will be aware that I have spoken on this issue already. I acknowledge the commitment of the people of Borrisokane to the new arrivals. It is not unique, as the Deputy will have seen from the case in County Clare. There are other situations around the country where people are housed in international protection accommodation on the assumption that it is temporary. I have read the letter to which the Deputy is referring and I can understand why people have been misled by the wording on it. That is deeply unfortunate. I have read it. I have been inquiring as to the level of supports which have been provided to the residents to source alternative accommodation and I am looking to see if we can do more in that regard. My understanding is they are being offered some alternatives rather than eviction.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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That is impossible.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Recently, I met the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Irish Wheelchair Association following the decision by the Minister for Social Protection to end the Green Paper process and to carry out further consultation. We are heading into a budget. The ESRI has stated on the last two occasions that we have kept ahead of inflation by combining core increases and once-off payments but we will get to a point by which we phase out once-off payments. The disability support grant, which was introduced in 2022, goes, in some way, to try to address the real cost of disability. I urge the Minister, Deputy McEntee, the Minister for Social Protection and all of the Government to consider what can be done to retain that disability support grant payment in advance of a full consultation and decisions around the future of a Green Paper process. It something which was welcomed in 2022 as an indication of the real cost of disability. I ask the Government to continue to support it.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Like every other year, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, will be holding consultation with all the various groupings. She plans on having a consultation again this year. Like every year, she has been very open and supportive and I have no doubt she will be the same this year again.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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More than 9,278 citizens have died from Covid-19. Each and every one of those deaths leaves broken hearts and shattered lives. In many cases, relatives never got to say goodbye to their loved ones. What is happening to the inquiry which has been long promised? It is four years since we had our first deaths from Covid-19. I wish to know what is happening in this regard. We need to prepare for the next pandemic. Separately, that inquiry has to have the participation of the families of the 23 people who died in Dealgan House nursing home. They died in extraordinary, unbelievable and very challenging circumstances. There are great doubts and uncertainties about how they were looked after and how they died. We must get to the bottom of that tragedy.

Care champions are campaigning for a small number of nursing homes where people died with no explanation as to what exactly went on. We need an inquiry to get to the truth.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge the heartache and distress that has been caused to so many people post Covid. As a Government, we did a lot of things right but we need to make sure that where we could have done things better that we can always learn from that. It will not change things or bring people back but we need to make sure that we engage with everyone who was impacted over the years. Where changes potentially need to take place or where we need to have plans in place - God forbid should anything happen again - we must be able to respond in the most effective way possible. I understand that the terms of reference are coming to Government shortly. Once they are approved, the process itself will start very quickly and we will be able to engage with all parties, including families.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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Thirteen-year-old Cara Darmody is back protesting again about the lack of proper autism assessments and services. Cara is calling on the Government to meet those obligations and to reimburse any family that has been forced to go private. She is calling for four things. The first is for a commitment, backed by a timeline, for needs assessments for all children who apply, to be carried out within six months. The second is for a commitment, backed by a timeline, for access to relevant services within months rather than years, for needs-assessed children. The third is for the Government to commit to meeting its obligations under the Disability Act 2005 because this Government, and others, have dragged their heels on it. The fourth is to commit to producing monthly progress reports. When will the Government stop failing children and meet its obligations to ensure that every child who requires an assessment will get one?

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Vulture funds are the biggest players in student accommodation thanks to the policies of this Government. Not only are their rents too high but the leases are far too long, with 51-week leases for a 39-week academic term. The Taoiseach told us in February, March and April that he would bring in legislation before the summer recess to change this. The summer recess is in three weeks and we have not heard a peep. It has now been proven that vulture funds are the thin end of the wedge. A graduate-entry medicine student at UL contacted me to say that he has only been offered a 51-week lease in UL-run accommodation. How can the Government possibly hope to pass this in the next three weeks? The Government is forcing students to take on these leases in September.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Across Carlow and Kilkenny communities are deeply concerned about wind farms and the height of the turbines now being proposed. I am asking particularly in relation to Castlewarren, Ballyouskill and the joined farms across county boundaries. I am asking that someone take charge of what is being done. Will someone defend the communities and restrict the height of these turbines? Will the Minister clarify the regulations and the differences between legal opinions from the Department and, for example, Kilkenny County Council? It is an issue of deep concern and communities are being forced to fend for themselves and that is not fair.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Guidelines are in place. It is important that any company progressing a project engages with the local authority and adheres to the guidelines. To give a more detailed answer I will ask the Minister responsible to respond to the Deputy on the project.

On housing, the way that we deal with any housing crisis is by producing more houses and apartments to provide more options for people, including young people and including student accommodation. Every week, 350 homes are being built.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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What about the 51-week lease?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My understanding is that measures are being brought to Cabinet.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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In three weeks?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Measures have been brought by the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, to address the issue of students having to engage in full-year leases as opposed to shorter leases. He will be progressing that as soon as possible.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Before the summer?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I do not have an exact timeline for that.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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Is there any response on Cara Darmody?

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter which was also raised earlier on as part of the questions. The Taoiseach, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and I are meeting Cara and her parents tomorrow at 1 p.m. We will address the four points the Deputy mentioned. It is important to have on the record of the Dáil that €11.89 million has been put in place for long waiters so that no parent has to spend the money. We will pay the clinicians directly for any child who has been waiting a long time for an assessment of need.