Are the Deputies splitting their time?
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Special Educational Needs
I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue matter this morning. This is about a badly-needed special school in our area so that those with additional needs can get the education they deserve. It is also about the needs of Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School. The school has very a committed principal and staff who are trying to achieve the very best for their students. Our time is short and I do not want to pit one school against another. That is not what this is about. This is about finding a compromise solution so that the special school gets under way as soon as possible and the secondary school can plan for its facilities as its enrolment numbers continue to grow.
It makes absolutely no sense at all to accommodate a much-needed special school in Belmayne in prefabs, next door to brand-new classrooms that are not yet in use and that were specifically designed for students with additional needs. Why should children with additional needs be accommodated in prefabs in substandard conditions when a much better option is available? There is a site available in the local area for a permanent special school. It is important that this building is prioritised and that, in the meantime, the school is accommodated temporarily in the new classrooms in Belmayne Educate Together. Will the Minister of State give a commitment that he will not proceed with the use of prefabs and will instead use the brand-new classrooms available?
I want to be very clear; we need a special school. We have all been contacted by parents who are having to fight for their children to get appropriate places, and I want to make it very clear that we are all on the same page. The compromise solution put forward by Belmayne Educate Together, which will see a special school housed temporarily in its permanent building, makes sense. Nobody wants to see a special school going in to prefabs. This school can house this special school temporarily in a permanent building while it awaits its new build. We need an explanation as to why this compromise, which is very fair, has been rejected by the Department.
It is great to see a united party effort on this issue. We all attended the information evening in Belmayne. It is very clear we need another special school in Dublin Bay North. The issue is the option for phase 2 of the Belmayne Educate Together school has been offered by the school. It is clearly a better solution than putting these kids into prefabs. On the night we were all there, we heard parents who have children who will be attending the special school as well as children in Belmayne Educate Together urging the Department to use the phase 2 building that is already built and warmer and safer for these children who have additional needs. I urge the Department to please go with what the people of the area and all the elected TDs are asking.
I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment and wish him well on it. I know he is very committed to the area of special needs. I am very conscious that today is World Autism Awareness Day and I certainly do not want to be seen to be pitting one group of children against another, particularly given that the special school the Department wants to put into prefabs, which is totally unacceptable, is pitted against children who are also on the spectrum within the Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School. The use of prefabs as we have seen down the road in Gaelcholáiste Reachrainn, which were provided as a temporary solution but have become a 24-year permanent solution, is certainly not good enough for children with special needs. We need to knock this stupid idea on the head immediately and get these children moved into the school building with the Belmayne Educate Together, which is happy to welcome them to its building.
I thank the Deputies for raising this hugely important issue. I will outline what we are doing before I go into the substantive issue.
The Department and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, continue to support children with special educational needs. I want to stress that enabling students with additional needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is an ongoing priority for me and the Government. The number of classes, special education teachers and needs assistants are at an unprecedented level. In 2025, the Department will spend more than €2.9 billion on special education. More than one quarter of the entire education budget has been dedicated to special education in recent years.
The main supports this fund provides are the new special places, special education teachers and SNA posts. More than 3,330 special classes have been sanctioned by the NCSE and 408 of these are for the current school year. This includes 289 at primary level and 119 at post-primary level. Of 124 special schools nationwide, four schools are new for this year and further capacity has been expanded in 11 others. There have been five more schools established in 2025-26 in counties Cork, Dublin, Monaghan and Tipperary. There are two schools in Dublin. The new special schools are a key priority for the Department. This will bring to 16 the number of new special schools opened in recent years. In addition, budget 2025 provides for a dedicated special education innovation fund in recognition of the need to continually evolve and examine best practice to fund children with special educational needs. Funding has also been secured for targeted measures to help children with special educational needs when planning and transitioning to and from the various levels of education system. This has been provided for supporting teachers and special needs assistance in their enhanced training requirements.
In respect of the issue raised, Belmayne Community Special School is one of five new special schools due to be opened in the 2025-26 school year to meet the demand for additional school places in the north Dublin area. The urgency associated with establishing this new school means that existing accommodation must be utilised. This will then allow the school to be opened as quickly as possible. Belmayne Community Special School has been established under the patronage of Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, ETB. The Department has proposed to locate the school in the existing modular accommodation on the Department's own site at Belmayne, which accommodates Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School. This is an interim arrangement for the new special school and the Department is working towards a long-term solution, including the exploration of the potential local sites options. Phase 2 of the school building for the Belmayne Educate Together school is due to be completed shortly and will provide a full range of modern school accommodation for 1,000 students and at least four special classes. The impact of utilising modular accommodation for a new special school means that some of the external play area of Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School cannot be delivered immediately as intended as part of the new school development, as modular accommodation occupies this area currently.
There is a requirement for a significant increase in the mainstream and special class enrolments in Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School in 2025-26 and in future years. The school will also be required to substantially grow enrolments over the coming years to meet the pressing requirements for special school places. This reflects the importance of using modular accommodation for a special school to maximise the available special classes and mainstream places.
Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School is naturally disappointed with the requirement to it retain the modular accommodation on site, but the Department is working closely with the school patron to support the optimised use of the remaining external area and the significant internal accommodation facilities at the school. Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School has offered the use of part of the new school building. However, this proposal would provide about 20% less usable space for the special school than would be the case with the modular accommodation. There would also be significant technical issues involved with repurposing it to meet the needs of the special school. Furthermore, it would impact on the requirement for significant growth in mainstream enrolments at the school into the future.
I thank the Minister of State. It is indicated further on in the written response circulated to Members that there has been engagement with the school. There was a meeting with the school authorities on 25 March. I welcome that and the fact that additional engagement is planned. The concern which Deputy Brabazon set out relates to the long term, and that those students will be there in the long term. Will the Minister of State give a commitment regarding a timeframe for when the additional site will be identified locally in order that parents can have some certainty?
I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He indicated that existing accommodation must be utilised. That is exactly what we proposed – to use the brand-new classrooms. He said that using the existing classrooms designed for students with additional needs would require repurposing and that there are technical issues involved. That would be nothing compared with the work that will have to be done on the prefabs. I have been in those prefabs. A huge amount of expenditure and repurposing would be required, and even then they would still not up to the standard of the permanent classrooms. I again ask the Minister of State to reconsider the position. It does not make sense to put children in prefabs when there is better accommodation available.
I echo what my constituency colleagues said. Will the Minister of State visit the school in order to see the difference between the prefabs to which he refers and what a permanent school building would offer? We need a timeline for the delivery of permanent accommodation. This is not the Minister of State’s brief; it is that of the Minister for Education. We need a timeline for when a permanent school building for this special school will be delivered. The Minister of State needs to be fair to the parents and people in the area. You only need to look up the road to Gaelchólaiste Reachrann, where children have been in prefabs for 24 years on the grounds of another school. Nobody wants to see that repeated.
I also thank the Minister of State for coming to the cross-party meeting on autism. When I raised this matter with him, he looked at it straight away. All the TDs in Dublin Bay North have raised this matter because they have been fighting for it since before I was elected. There is a prefab pandemic in Dublin Bay North, as those involved with running Gaelchólaiste Reachrann have noted. People have seen how it is never a temporary solution.
I welcome what Deputy O’Callaghan said. The amount of work that would have to be done to make the existing prefabs suitable as accommodation for a special school would come at a great cost to the Department. I also welcome what Deputy Mitchell said. The Minister of State can visit the school and see what needs to be done. If he does so, it will change his mind.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. Like other Deputies, I feel a visit to the school would open his eyes to the potential there for the solution that has been proposed by those on the ground. In 2004, Dublin City Council, in developing Belmayne and Clongriffin, set up what was called the North Fringe Forum. The Department was invited to engage with the forum and was told at that stage that there was going to be a crisis in respect of school places. It did nothing. Those in the Department put their heads in the sand and denied that there would be a problem. Twenty years on, they objected to planning for residential housing. There lies the problem. We need to root out the problem in the Department.
I thank the Deputies for their responses and for their sincerity. The written reply was circulated to them, so I will not waste the time of the Dáil by reading it into the record. The position is obvious. The Department is continuing to liaise with the school authorities to find a solution. I take the point that a permanent site is the solution and that the prefabs should not be seen as a long-term solution; they are for the short term. If we are true to our word about making sure that we have special classes and special schools right across Dublin and the country, then this must be a priority. It is a priority for me and for the Government to identify and obtain suitable sites and build special schools rather than just depending on the use of existing structures.
I noted a number of the points the Deputies made. The Department has a technical team which has come back to us to say there would be 20% less accommodation if the special school was accommodated in the new building rather than the modular buildings. I will reflect on what the Deputies have said and go back to the Department.
The special school in Belmayne is a hugely important building block in the context of providing accommodation for children with additional and profound needs who live in north Dublin. It is important that it be put in place as soon as possible. I will reflect on what the Deputies said and will report back to them at a later date. There may be a collective meeting on the matter when I have a further update. I will certainly come back to them via email or by means of a meeting, if necessary.
I am sincere about what we are trying to do. This matter is hugely important to me and, as Members said, to the parents and children involved. We must work desperately hard to obtain solutions. The Department’s technical team is in contact with the school authorities. The team visited the school last week and will remain in contact with the management of the school. I thank the Deputies again for raising this issue.
Water Supply
Our water system in Kildare is failing many of us, and too regularly. I was a member of Kildare County Council between 2019 and 2024. Over those five years, a number of issues - housing, roads, climate, public transport, young people services and water - arose on a consistent basis. The anger, frustration and utter dismay felt by Kildare residents about water outages is palpable. N one is immune. Residents in Celbridge, Primrose Hill and Hazelhatch have experienced gruelling outages. They have had enough. Leixlip was the location of significant works to a burst water main in March. Schools have had to close because of bust mains in Maynooth. For many years, residents in Prosperous, Allenwood, Coill Dubh, Robertstown – the list goes on – have had to buy between two to four litres of water in their weekly shop to cover these unplanned water outages.
The Minister of State will not need me to tell him about the impact of water outages. People with babies at home or those with severe illness have their lives turned upside down for the duration. Businesses have to close or make some form of alteration to their offering and then there are the nursing homes, universities and schools. Water outages impact every facet of communities. The people of Kildare are very reasonable. An odd outage here or there is understandable; things happen and problems occur. The phenomenal staff of Uisce Éireann do their utmost to rectify problems as quickly as possible. However, what people in Kildare are experiencing is not reasonable any more. Any meaningful long-term solutions to these problems are not close enough to give any cause for comfort.
In 1991, when I was four years old, the population of Kildare was 122,000. Some 34 years later, that population has more than doubled to nearly 250,000. In a very short time we have had a phenomenal increase in our population in Kildare but we have not had the strategic capital investment in our infrastructure. It is about capacity and the ability to cope with increased demand on our systems. Every service in Kildare is vulnerable. Our healthcare, education and transport systems are unable to cope with the increased demand without any additional capacity. Kildare has been forgotten by successive Governments. We might fix a burst main here or replace a small section of pipe there but until the Government acknowledges the level of attention and funding that is required by but that is not being given to a county that continues to grow exponentially, the shops in Kildare will need to keep supplies of bottled water on the shelves.
I am a very proud former member of Kildare County Council. The level of expertise and commitment from staff in the local authority is incredible. They just need the resources to do their work. Similarly, I want to stress I am in no way critical of Uisce Éireann staff.
They respond emphatically when called upon to the latest outage, often working day and night to restore what is a basic amenity. What Kildare needs is to be treated for what it is. We are the fifth most densely populated local authority in the State, but the level of funding and resources allocated to Kildare is rarely the fifth largest amount. It is quite the opposite in fact. I understand there are significant projects being planned, which aim to alleviate some of these issues, but we must acknowledge that gives little solace to people who just want to be able to turn their taps on and expect water to come out.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I do not think Kildare is a forgotten county, but the Deputy is well within his rights to represent the different areas. He is well aware of the different geographical areas in Kildare experiencing difficulties at the moment. This response is quite detailed, and I hope it gives him some comfort. If it does not, I ask the Deputy to come back to me and we will seek further detail.
The Deputy will appreciate that the operation of the public water supply, together with operational issues locally are matters for Uisce Eireann, which has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level. Under section 7 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013, neither I, as Minister of State, nor my Department has an operational function in the matter to which the Deputy refers.
However, I have made some inquiries and am informed that there are operational challenges in Celbridge, including Hazelhatch, with the water network under pressure. Uisce Éireann has water mains rehab works approved for design and construction in 2025. The works involve 5.3 km of water mains. Site investigation works are planned in the coming weeks and construction is due to commence in quarter 2 of this year. These works will help address the water network challenges in Celbridge. Turning to Allenwood, Uisce Éireann is carrying out leakage reduction works to provide a more reliable water supply and reduce high levels of leakage. The works involve the replacement of more than 3.7 km of problematic water mains with new modern pipes. The works commenced in November 2024 with more than 1.3 km replaced to date. These works are being carried out as part of Uisce Éireann’s national leakage reduction programme. The works also involve laying new water service connections from the public water main in the road to customers’ property boundaries and connecting it to the customers’ water supply. The works are expected to be completed by Summer 2025.
In Leixlip, phase two of €20 million upgrade works are complete at the Leixlip water treatment plant. This plant has now commenced a third investment phase worth €30 million, aimed at increasing the resilience and capacity of Ireland's second largest water treatment facility, which is programmed to take three years to complete.
I turn to Ballymore Eustace to Saggart pipeline critical repairs. In August 2024, Uisce Éireann successfully completed critical and complex repairs to a major trunk water main that connects Ballymore Eustace water treatment plant and the Saggart reservoir to safeguard water supply to 1.7 million customers in the greater Dublin area. In terms of other mains repairs, works took place on 31 March in Rickardstown, Newbridge and surrounding areas in County Kildare, and mains repair works are scheduled to take place today to Oakfield Heights, Oakfield Park, Oakglade, Hazelmere, Naas and surrounding areas in County Kildare, which may cause supply disruption.
I will come back on more, but that is a pretty detailed response. I appreciate it may not cover every single area the Deputy brought up. If there are outstanding issues the Deputy wants me to raise with Uisce Éireann directly, I am all ears.
I sincerely thank the Minister of State for the detailed reply. It is really helpful and appreciated. He can see himself that when we see a list, it is felt individually but when looked at collectively, it is something of a structural issue. That is point I am trying to raise today. The overall demand, when the population increases to such a degree, means we will see infrastructure start to creak overall. I really appreciate that comprehensive reply and I am struck by recent comments from the chair of Irish Water, who raised concerns about extraordinary complacency and passive indifference in terms of Irish Water infrastructure in recent years. However, this is positive. Unfortunately, it took significant disruption in order for us to get to this amount of investment and I raise it in the context of expected housing growth in a county like Kildare. It is understandably a favoured place to live. There are wonderful communities that just want some of those basics to be right. The Minister of State will hear more from me, and I appreciate the dialogue. It is good to be getting on with these important issues, so I look forward to engaging with him and his Department further as we go on.
I again thank the Deputy and echo what he said about Uisce Éireann staff on the ground. The rate at which they respond to leaks is extraordinary. They are on the ground straight away, repairing leaks and for some of them it is almost all they do. I guess that comes back to the Deputy's point about a proper strategy for replacing old pipes and longer lengths of old pipes. We mentioned a few areas where they are replacing up to 3 km or 4 km pipes. That needs to be the strategy because the amount of money, resources and workforce hours it takes to repair these leaks is not productive. I completely agree that is a long-term strategy. I take the Deputy's point about Kildare as well. It is a great county with the population increasing, and probably due to increase further, so there has to be a long-term strategy rather than this ad hoc response as one might describe it. There are plans, relating to the water supply project in the eastern and midlands region, to take water from Parteen and Tipperary. That might be a while away, but we need to see that progress and to proceed as far as is possible.
Coming back to Uisce Éireann, its budget is now €2.2 billion. I mentioned that as Ministers and Ministers of State we have no say directly in terms of the operation of Uisce Éireann and the prioritisation of projects, etc., but we provide the budget. It is a significant budget of €2.2 billion with more to come through Apple funding, etc. The message needs to be sent loud and clear to Uisce Éireann. Whether it is water supply or water treatment, if we are serious about dealing with the housing crisis and ramping up construction of houses, then we need to have that infrastructure in place. Uisce Éireann has a body of work to do. We have put the funding behind it. It now needs to start making sure these projects come to fruition, that we can see houses being built and that areas like Kildare have basic water supply.
International Protection
Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach, an Teachta Ó Murchú, for allowing me to table this Topical Issue.
I am disappointed that neither the Minister for Justice nor the Minister for Education are here. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, has responsibility for procurement, so she might be able to answer me. I refer to the whole situation of the procurement of hotels throughout the country, but especially in Tipperary. Racket Hall in Roscrea and Dundrum House Hotel are landmarks and beacons of our tourism industry. The beautiful Kilcoran Lodge Hotel has been in operation for more than 125 years. There are wonderful staff there and I sympathise with them. There is Hearne's Hotel in Clonmel of Charles Bianconi fame, who gave us our first transport system. Throughout Tipperary there are hotels for tourism. I think we had a 25% reduction in tourism figures and visitors in January. We had a 30% reduction in February. If this is not alarming to the Minister of State and to the Government, that is shocking. This has been moved from the Department of integration, which I welcome, to the Department of Justice but I cannot understand for the life of me why the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has not had sight of it yet nor has the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy. I thank both of them for engaging with me.
I have tabled a Topical Issue but the Minister for Education, where it rests at the moment, is not here either. This is a shocking indictment of the democratic process and accountability in Dáil Éireann. None of them are here. The Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, has come in as the junior Minister. I mean no disrespect to her and wish her well but this is not good enough. I know the only area she has responsibility for is procurement.
I spoke of Kilcoran hotel. There is subterfuge there with shady owners. We did not know who owned it but we found out. The genie is out of the bottle. The owners, who have been flushed out, applied to Tipperary County Council for section 5. We know who they are and what they are, and what they want is a quick buck. They are not interested in the community.
Kilcoran hotel, like Dundrum House Hotel, has been home to so many christenings, first communions and confirmations. Indeed, the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, told me that, as a buachaill óg, he was a page boy at the wedding of his late uncle and aunt, who is a member of the O'Brien family and is living in Ardfinnan, in the Kilcoran hotel. Dundrum hotel, which was owned by the Crowe family, is a magnificent resource, but it is riddled with court cases at the moment. There was a hearing yesterday involving the receiver. A shady owner, to put it mildly, has that as well. It is being contested and the Wennings from America, who own it, are trying to get him out of the place.
The communities are not able for this. There are no GP services. There are no transport services. Kilcoran is about 6 miles from Cahir and the parish of Ballylooby. It is a wonderful beacon with great staff and it is just off the motorway. It is a great location to improve our potential for visitor numbers in Tipperary and the fíorfháilte of the Tipperary people for anybody who visits wherever they come from. We are not anti-immigration, but it is reckless in the extreme to take over businesses of long standing, which have given employment and are a valuable resource to the county and to all who visit, without consultation.
I have had some engagement from Eibhlin Byrne from the engagement team, but there is no consultation. The Minister of State is in procurement. This telling of public representatives after a contract is signed is nothing short of scandalous, blackguarding and disrespectful of elected representatives who are trying to deal with the community. The communities there are good people. In Dundrum, they have been at the gates for 225 days or more. They are standing there, peacefully protesting - they are not anti. The Ukrainians were integrated and working, but the Government is turning it into an IPAS centre.
This is reckless endangerment of an industry and communities. The Minister of State has it in her own documentation that the demographics cannot be changed by more than 5% in an area with an IPAS centre. Dundrum is being changed by 125% because, according to the last census, there are just 220 people in the village and more than 280 people are being put in. Kilcoran is similar. It is a rural parish and area. It is a great community with great people. Where is the spirit of the Gael and ní neart go cur le chéile in the dividing the Government is doing? It is not fair either to the people who go in there. There is no transport, GP services or anything else.
I hope the Minister of State has a good answer for me because they want answers off me, and I am looking for answers off her.
I thank Deputy McGrath for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for equality, disability and youth, Norma Foley, who cannot be with us this morning.
Ireland currently provides accommodation to approximately 33,000 people applying for international protection and has also welcomed more than 114,000 people from Ukraine since 2022. Our accommodation systems have had to expand at a rapid pace over the past two years in response to this sharp increase in need among both those groups. The 114,000 arriving from Ukraine, combined with the significant increase in applications for international protection since 2022, have come at a time when accommodation in Ireland is at a very short supply across all dimensions.
In addition to the Ukraine response, the increase in applications for international protection places a legal duty on the State to accommodate the additional applicants. Emergency centres have been opened in all parts of the country, and intensive efforts were made, as part of a whole-of-Government response, to ensure people in need were provided with shelter and support.
Against the backdrop over the past three years of unique events in Ukraine, increased need and the acute shortage of accommodation, it has not been possible for the Department to apply specific policies in respect of geographic distribution of accommodation centres. Consequently, every suitable offer of much-needed accommodation has had to be considered and appraised. However, in future, it is hoped that there will be a greater focus on dispersal strategies as we work toward a more stable and sustainable accommodation system in this sector.
The international protection procurement service, IPPS, tries to ensure, in as far as possible, that international protection applicants are not located in remote locations. However, given the demand for accommodation over recent years, this has not always been possible. The Department engages with relevant stakeholders and accommodation service providers as appropriate to ensure that international protection applicants placed in accommodation in areas that are farther from urban centres, towns or villages have access to transportation as a basic requirement. In situations where an accommodation centre is located without public transport links within a 2 km radius but where there is manageable access, IPAS will ensure that a shuttle service to a nearby town or a public transport stop is provided.
The agreement to not contract IPAS accommodation in a given town’s only operating hotel was agreed by the Government during this period of intense need on the basis of not removing an important amenity from public use. I note Deputy McGrath is saying that many of the hotels he listed were amenities up until the point of contract. This was based on not accepting new contracts that would take a town’s last operating hotel out of public use for events, holiday or business stays, and day-to day use by the town for food, socialising or leisure, or the events the Deputy named, such as confirmations, communions and all those important parts of growing up. Where a former hotel or tourist accommodation has not been in public use for some time, or has been contracted by the Department to accommodate people fleeing the war in Ukraine, the approach has been to consider offers from such a property, as it was not providing a hotel facility in that community.
Significant efforts are under way to source and bring into use suitable long-term international protection accommodation facilities in line with the comprehensive accommodation strategy.
I see the clock counting down. I think the Deputy will be particularly interested in this. Figures from Fáilte Ireland last year showed that 12,000 beds were returned from use by the Department's Ukraine response to tourism specifically, which were among the 15,000 beds returned to private use by the Ukraine team in the period. I hope this shows that this will allow growth of the tourism sector in the areas like Dundrum and Tipperary, with an acknowledgment of the contribution made by these areas and providers to support the historic humanitarian and State response to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
There is further detail and I believe it has been provided to the Deputy by our usher.
Much of what the Minister of State read out to me in that reply was simply untrue. Dundrum House Hotel - the famous Crowe family for generations has had that hotel - is the only hotel not only in Dundrum village, but in the whole west Tipperary community. That turns the Department policy on its head.
We have the wonderful Cahir House Hotel in Cahir operated by Robert Scannell and David Walsh, its two co-owners. They provide a great service. They have often told me they could make a lot more of money out of this. The fact is the Government is paying too much per night per person for this. It is so lucrative that unsavoury individuals are exploiting it and exploiting people who go to that accommodation.
The Minister of State mentioned transport. People cannot get TFI transport in Kilcoran and Ballylooby, but the Government is prepared to put on a public transport service for the IPAS people. That is discrimination against Irish people of south Tipperary. Why is there such an attack on Tipperary? We played a huge part in the War of Independence, with the first shots fired. Here we are now, with a vein of our hotels right through the middle of the county being taken up and the Department's subterfuge.
The biggest farce of all is we are now 120 days after the Government formed and we still do not have a Minister in charge of it. The Minister for equality does not want anything to do with it. She is not even here this morning. It is in her lap at the moment but it is meant to be transposed to the Department of Justice. I welcome Jim O’Callaghan and his comments and his actions so far, and the fact that up to 81% of IPAS applications this year are being refused. It is like we were blindfolded before this and our Border was like a sieve. There is messing around, though. I was delighted we moved away from Roderic O'Gorman's Department, but now it is in no man’s land and unsavoury individuals are exploiting the situation.
Eibhlin Byrne and her team are doing their best to engage with us, but engagement after the fact is not acceptable in a democratic society. There must be engagement. Politicians, including local councillors and ourselves, must be consulted. How are we going to explain to the people if we do not know and this kind of subterfuge and deceit is going on? Shady deals have been done with people who are unsavoury characters in both hotels I am talking about, and that is putting it mildly.
With respect, I disagree. I do not believe that this is an attack on Tipperary or that the situation is in no man’s land. We have two Ministers engaging in this important priority area for Government. The relevant Minister for accommodation is the Minister, Norma Foley, who is the Minister for equality, disability, integration and youth, and I will pass the Deputy’s feedback on to her.
Since the Deputy’s initial remarks were specific with regard to tourism, wanting to protect tourism and getting many of those beds back into tourism, it is important to reiterate that, last year, 12,000 beds were returned from use by the Department’s Ukraine team to tourism. That is a progressive step.
Accommodation under the comprehensive accommodation strategy, CAS, includes the use of State-owned land for emergency tented, prefab and modular units, the conversion of commercial buildings, and the targeted purchasing of turnkey properties. This will include the design and building of new reception and integration centres and the upgrading of IPAS centres. It will be supplemented as required by high-standard commercial providers also.
As developing these more sustainable, State-owned accommodation systems under this strategy will take time, the commissioning of emergency commercial accommodation will continue to be a feature in the short to medium term. However, this accommodation will be concentrated on a short-term basis. If numbers drop, it can then be decommissioned as contracts expire.
As set out in the strategy launched last March, by adopting the mixed accommodation plan, the Government will begin to gradually move away from the reactive crisis response, which I note the Deputy has concerns with. That will allow the State to regain long-term certainty over accommodation availability and adjust commercial accommodation stock as required to meet the needs, and it will mean a far greater degree of control over geographic distribution, allocation and dispersion of applicants. It will also mean much greater lead-in time to the opening of new centres, which will allow for enhanced and more effective local communication. I acknowledge Eibhlin and her team, who have been in touch with the Deputy. The development of those integration links is very important.
The work is being progressed as part of the development of a new migration and integration strategy, which will shortly transfer from the Department of equality to the Department of Justice. That move is expected in the coming weeks.
Ambulance Service
Before I get into the important issue, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for taking this Topical Issue. By way of illustration for anyone watching this debate, I sought to raise this, the most important issue in County Clare at the moment, last week in the Dáil, but it was not selected due to the rigmarole. I only had one speaking slot last week, on laws from the 1820 to 1850 period. People in Clare heard me talking about the Great Famine and everything else when there were pressing issues I needed to address. Thankfully, I have speaking time today and will progress this issue.
I want to speak about delays in ambulance care in County Clare. In the critical time following an accident or incident in a home, how quickly an ambulance arrives and then brings someone to an accident and emergency department is crucial. Unfortunately, my family knows this all too well. Today is 2 April, and exactly five months ago today, my mother-in-law was killed in a road traffic accident on the main street of Charleville. Out of respect for the late woman, I will mention her name, Mary Fehilly. We are very grateful as a family for the ambulance service in north County Cork and the air ambulance that brought her to CUH. Unfortunately, the outcome was not a good one and she passed away.
Everything is time critical. I want to illustrate two examples where, in the past week alone, ambulances have not arrived on time in County Clare. The first was on 24 March, where there was a road traffic accident in Doonbeg in west Clare. An elderly woman got out of a car and sat at the roadside. She was very sick and had a headache. She was not fully coherent. Emergency services, including the Clare county fire service, arrived and were outstanding, as they always are, but she had waited on the roadside for a three-hour period before being taken from there. That is unforgivable. I am not blaming the National Ambulance Service - it was run ragged that day and had to respond to several other incidents in the county - but that response time was not good enough. It speaks to undercapacity in County Clare. These matters are time critical. Thankfully, the woman is home and has recovered well, but in the moment following the road traffic accident, nobody knew what her state was, whether there was damage to her spine or whether she would have a cardiac episode. The situation was time critical and a three-hour wait is not good enough. I do not know of any country where someone would have to wait three hours.
The following day, 25 March, there was another incident in west Clare. An elderly woman was unresponsive, with low blood pressure, a history of cardiac issues and diabetes. Her daughter, a nurse, came upon her. The daughter knew, given the vital signs, that there were a lot of red alerts and made a 999 call. She was told an ambulance was on the way. For the next 90 minutes, she heard nothing. There was no update on when the ambulance would arrive. She phoned 999 again and was told she should only ring the number if the situation deteriorated. Eventually, the daughter drove her mother to the hospital. She was freaked out and panicked, driving in traffic from rural roads to join the M18 motorway, knowing that her mother was unwell in the car. Ambulatory care should have brought the woman to hospital.
UHL and the crisis in emergency healthcare in the mid-west is highlighted here every week. For many people, the entry point to emergency care is the arrival of an ambulance. I reiterate for the record, lest it be misconstrued, that I am not criticising the fantastic men and women of the National Ambulance Service or the Clare fire service, which provides ancillary cover until an ambulance can arrive. I am just pointing out that if someone lives at one of the extremities of my vast county in west or north Clare, which are at the polar ends of the county from where I live, that person is a long way from acute care and, as the evidence I provided today shows, from ambulatory care. I hope the Minister of State can provide some news and hope to people in those parts of County Clare because they panic when something goes wrong.
I again wish to express our deepest condolences to the Deputy on the death of Mary, his mother-in-law, and to the Fehilly and Crowe families. I also want to acknowledge the spirit in which he has raised these issues because at no stage did he criticise the men and women of the National Ambulance Service or our other first responders. Rather, he asked real questions, which he hopes will be addressed.
I welcome the opportunity to address the House on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, regarding the Deputy's request for information on the National Ambulance Service's capacity in the County Clare region. This year's allocation to our National Ambulance Service of €285 million includes €8 million in new service developments to deliver up to 180 additional posts, representing a significant increase on the 2024 allocation.
As far as County Clare is concerned, the National Ambulance Service serves the county from bases located in Ennis, Ennistymon, Kilrush and Scarriff. These bases are staffed by a highly skilled workforce of pre-hospital emergency care practitioners, including paramedics, advanced paramedics and emergency medical technicians. In addition, the National Ambulance Service operates a fleet of modern emergency ambulances, intermediate care vehicles and rapid response vehicles from these bases. County Clare also benefits from the National Ambulance Service's national emergency operation centre clinical hub. It has five active community first responder groups operating in the county, as well as aeromedical support provided by the HSE helicopter service based in Rathcoole, County Cork, and the Irish Coast Guard search and rescue service from its base in Shannon.
Patient demand for the National Ambulance Service continues to rise nationally and in the western region, which covers Clare. In 2024, there were nearly 430,000 urgent and emergency calls received from the public, representing an 8% increase nationally on the previous year. In the National Ambulance Service's western region, call volume similarly increased by 8%, or 7,781 calls, during the same period. Despite a significant increase in demand, ambulance response performance has improved nationally and in the National Ambulance Service mid-west region, including Clare, compared to its performance in 2023.
The HSE national service plan sets out key performance indicators for cardiac or other potentially life-threatening calls to be responded to by ambulance in fewer than 90 minutes. In 2024, the National Ambulance Service's national performance for HSE key performance indicators, KPIs, was 73% against a target of 75% for purple calls, that is, life-threatening cases and 46% against a target of 45% for red calls, that is, calls to be responded to by an ambulance in less than 90 minutes. In the mid-west region, the National Ambulance Service's performance met the purple call KPI of 75% and exceeded the red call KPI of 49%. Performance in both call categories last year represents an improvement on performance in 2023.
The nub of the issue is that, in line with international best practice, the National Ambulance Service deploys resources nationally, including in Clare, dynamically. This means that it prioritises resource allocation to the highest acuity calls, which require an immediate emergency response in direct response to patient needs. The National Ambulance Service's dynamic deployment means that Clare may also be supported by bases from neighbouring counties to ensure adequate coverage and rostering for emergency ambulances and rapid response vehicles.
I thank the Minister of State sincerely for her response. She comes from County Waterford, a big county. I live on the southern extremity of County Clare, close to the Limerick border. The village of Cross, near Loop Head, is about one hour and 40 minutes from where I live. I could get to the Kildare Village retail park as quickly from my home. That shows how vast the county is. It takes people living in that village an hour and 40 minutes to travel to UHL. When someone has a cardiac episode, the first 60 minutes is crucial in terms of protecting the heart, salvaging whatever you can and keeping someone alive. That so-called golden hour simply does not exist geographically for people living in rural regions. Therefore, they depend on the National Ambulance Service.
Unfortunately, it is a loaves-and-fishes scenario with ambulances and there can be many calls to the dispatch centre. Someone has to triage which call is attended to first. The Minister of State mentioned that the National Ambulance Service had to deal with the highest acuity calls. I outlined two episodes, one in Doonbeg on a roadside following a road traffic accident and the second the case of a woman who was unresponsive in her home. At least in Doonbeg, first responders and the fire service were able to relay, through emergency terminals, how things were. When something goes wrong with someone at home and that person is unresponsive, though, what level of acuity is that given?
Only one thing will fix this. We need an extra ambulance base. I understand there are plans for one in Kilrush. I would love to hear some detail on that. This issue underpins the need for a new hospital and 24-hour accident and emergency department, a campaign led by Friends of Ennis Hospital, including a mutual friend of the Minister of State and I, Angela Coll. We need to do something dramatic to address the shortcomings in healthcare.
Many wonderful things happen in our hospitals each day, but people who live in the peripheral areas of north and west Clare need better ambulatory care. Moreover, they need better access to acute hospital care. I hope the HIQA report that comes out next month will reflect that fact, because there can be no turning back. I do not want one of these families to endure what we endured on 2 November. An acute situation on the roadside can very quickly become a tragedy where a family gathers around a graveside to bid farewell.
As well as front-line urgent and emergency care, the NAS is also developing and expanding a range of clinically appropriate alternative care pathways to improve patient flow and reduce pressure on busy hospital emergency departments. The medical assessment unit, MAU, pathway for 999 patients introduced in Ennis Hospital treats patients referred by GPs, out-of-hours services, including Shannondoc, and National Ambulance Service paramedics. Last year, the NAS transported 430 patients to mid-west MAUs, including Ennis.
I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the NAS plans to roll out additional community paramedics this year to various areas of the country. Community paramedics respond to low-acuity calls to facilitate more appropriate use of emergency care resources and enhance access to care for patients, contributing to more favourable health outcomes. I am informed that it is planned to include County Clare in this year's roll-out.
I understand the point Deputy Crowe makes. We all have experience of situations where we have to call an ambulance, for example, for an elderly parent. It can be very distressing. I assure the Deputy that there has been no change to the National Ambulance Service roster in County Clare in recent months. It is important to put that on the record of the Dáil. There has been no reduction in service levels in County Clare. Triage is a very difficult situation. I compliment all those who work across the country as first responders. They do an amazing job. I also acknowledge Angela Coll for all her advocacy on healthcare in the Clare region.
Mental Health Services
I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for being present to respond to this issue. This is World Autism Awareness Day. I want to specifically discuss autistic children who require supports provided by mental health services, including CAMHS. The Minister of State was in the Chamber when I raised with the Taoiseach the case of Senan Maguire, a 13-year-old autistic boy from Grange on the Cooley Peninsula. David, Tina and the wider family have all gone through huge stress due to the lack of support. We must try to bridge the gap in some way and, in the long term, put a proper system in place.
This case was also raised in the Sunday Independent the week before last. Senan is 13 years old now. When he was six, he lost his four-year old sister, Sophia, who had Down's syndrome. She was his best friend. He witnessed the attempts by paramedics to resuscitate her. His situation became a lot worse after that, in the sense of issues arising due to him experiencing increased anger, including within the school setting. He is currently out of school. That is something that must be addressed. We all know there is a wider issue relating to school places. Experts have stated that Senan is suffering from post-traumatic syndrome disorder, PTSD.
Unfortunately, the family have gone through a ping-pong scenario, which many other people have experienced, whereby issues are bounced between the CDNT, CAMHS and CAMHS-ID, which deals with intellectual disability. It is always a case of no room at the inn. I tabled two parliamentary questions on the matter - one on 14 February, the reply to which I will read into the record:
Senan Maguire is not currently on the waiting list for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Louth as he does not meet the assessment criteria for this team. If his needs have changed since previous referral to CAMHS Louth he can be referred again by his GP.
A CAMHS-ID Consultant has been recruited on a temporary contract. The consultant is not yet in a position to take on a caseload as a multidisciplinary team are not yet in place. Louth Meath Mental Health services are actively working to recruit the additional team members required to complete the multidisciplinary team (MDT) through the Pay & Number Strategy (PNS).
That is a frightening term because we all associate it with the suppression of posts.
Once the CAMHS-ID MDT is in place the GPs and teams in Louth and Meath will be notified and a referral can be made for Senan.
I was informed on 5 March that: "Senan is not currently on the waiting list for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Louth." I was again told that "he can be referred again by his GP" and that "A CAMHS-ID Consultant has been recruited ... and services are currently being set up." There is again no timeline. We need this to happen as soon as possible.
We are talking about a situation that has been going on for years. It was raised by Gerry Adams when he was a TD, long before my time. I have buckets of correspondence and I am aware the family has an even greater amount of it. In 2021, when they were dealing with the CDNT, they were promised speech and language therapy, which did not happen. I understand they are getting respite, which is necessary in order that they can focus on other family members. There is a general belief and the family's doctor insists that the child is showing signs of ADHD. In some respects, I would need to have four Ministers to respond in full to the issue I raise, but I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to deal with the issues that relate to her area of responsibility.
There is a difficulty in mentioning children's names. When the Deputy comes back in-----
I understand. This is in the public domain. It was put there by the family itself.
I just have to point that out.
That is fair enough.
I thank Deputy Ó Murchú very much for raising this important issue to specifically discuss the care of children with autism who also have mental health issues. In addition, I acknowledge the Deputy's constant advocacy in this area. We have had many exchanges and discussions on trying to provide services. I acknowledge the case of the young person he mentions, whom he also mentioned last week in the Dáil.
As the Deputy is aware, our child and adolescent mental health services are for those aged up to 18 years and who have a moderate-to-severe mental health difficulty. Access to CAMHS is on the basis of prioritised clinical assessment. All referrals to CAMHS are assessed by a multidisciplinary team. Approximately 2% of children and young people require support from this specialist service, with more than 90% of the mental health needs of younger people being successfully treated in a primary care setting.
I acknowledge that there are children and adolescents with complex care issues who may present, for example, with a moderate-to-severe mental health difficulty in addition to presentations such as an intellectual disability or autism. While the needs of children with autism are often best met by HSE primary care and children's disability network teams - the CDNTs - where a child or adolescent presents with a moderate-to-severe mental health difficulty, regardless of whether the child also has autism, it is the role of CAMHS to provide appropriate multidisciplinary assessment and treatment for the mental health difficulty.
In plain language, a young person who receives support from CAMHS normally has a primary mental health diagnosis. Then, there can be a secondary diagnosis for autism or other condition. I agree with the Deputy that there is no doubt it is a challenging area for many families of children who have more than one diagnosis. Sometimes, they might be refused entry to one service while they are on a waiting list for another.
On Monday of this week, I visited three different CAMHS teams in the south of the country as part of a process whereby I am currently visiting CAMHS teams. It is interesting to hear that the presentations have changed. Almost 55% of all presentations are linked to ADHD, but a big percentage of presentations are also linked to autism. Prior to this, there was a lot of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal ideation, but there has been a definite swing towards ADHD and autism. It is important that we prioritise the area more.
When information indicates that there is more than one HSE service that could best meet the needs of the child or adolescent, consultation should take place to determine which is the most appropriate service or whether a joint approach to assessment and intervention is indicated. In order to ensure a person-centred pathway to meet the needs of children with a complex disability and their families, the HSE and Tusla have a joint working protocol to promote best outcomes for children known to either one or both agencies. There is strong collaboration to ensure the needs of these young people are met.
Lots of parents come to me as well with the same situation. They feel their child probably does not sit in either service but they need the support of both. That is where it is becoming problematic. It is an area we are focusing on because we need to. When CAMHS teams were set up originally, autism was not as significant an issue as it is now. A Minister of State, I will put a strong focus on that to support those families because all they want is a pathway. I acknowledge that today is World Autism Awareness Day.
We need an absolute focus on this issue. We have all seen the silo operations. On the particular issue around Senan, we need the multidisciplinary team to be set up as soon as possible. Will the Minister of State respond with a timeline for that? I hope the pay and numbers strategy will not negatively affect the delivery of it as this would be unacceptable. We are talking about a family who has been failed over many years.
The other idea we need to work that people always talk about is that of there being no wrong door and having a one-stop shop. In the Scottish equivalent of CAMHS, all the families go through one place and the services are provided as they are best suited. We need an assessment of the entire need. Something has been done on the CDNTs. In October, I think, there was a workforce review and according to that, 530 positions are vacant in the CDNTs. With how the CDNTs are set up, to deliver assessments and therapies will require many more than 530 additional staff. I have raised school-based therapies with the Minister of State previously.
We have heard about the autism protocol as a means by which there would be no ping pong between the CDNT or primary care and CAMHS. We need to ensure that happens. It also need to be ensured that all the teams are in place because a family cannot be failed because it fits in a certain box but the team is not in place. That is not forgivable in any way, shape or form.
I will revisit this issue. Will the Minister of State outline a delivery time for the multidisciplinary team so we can at least get that under way? Will she also talk to the Minister for Education about the current issues in schools?
I am determined to make further progress through the national office for child and youth mental health in the HSE, which as developed a new youth mental health action plan, published in February. This three-year plan for comprehensive reform across all youth mental health services sets out a roadmap to ensure all children and families have the pathway we have discussed. The new action plan aims to enhance integrated care across youth services, including supporting children and young people who have co-existing neurodevelopmental and mental health needs, which is the area we have been talking about.
I checked out the mental health with intellectual disability, ID, team last week after the Deputy raised it in the Dáil. Mental health ID teams are a little different from CAMHS. They are multidisciplinary and might have nine to 12 positions. Across the board, mental health and ID teams are led by consultant psychiatrists who can deal with psychiatry and intellectual disability and it only takes four members of staff across the team. My understanding is that the consultant is in place and the auxiliary staff are being recruited at the moment. However, I understand the urgency of this area. What I have tried to do in the past five years with the 44% increase in all the various budgets is to build incrementally. There are two new mental health ID teams this year, along with two eating disorder teams and four ADHD teams for adults. They are being built incrementally. The pay and numbers strategy will not be an issue because these posts are ring-fenced.