The cost of living is putting enormous pressure on households. A report by Barnardos published this morning highlights the sharp impact on families and children. Nearly half of parents say they or their children have gone without or cut back on the basics over the past six months. This includes food, clothes, medicine, electricity and heat. Some 47% of parents say they are forced to cut back on social activities for their kids. The vast majority of those surveyed say they worry about not being able to provide the daily essentials for their children. These are the stories I hear from families as I canvass around the country. Speaking on radio this morning, Barnardos CEO Suzanne Connolly captured the real stress and worry for parents, saying:

Can you imagine what it is like living in a household where you are having to make those type of choices about whether to have the heating on or to have variety in your diet in terms of food? Can you imagine what it is like for parents having to say to children, 'We cannot do what your friends are doing ... we cannot afford it'?

That is the reality for so many workers and families. For many of them, the cost of living has never been higher and getting by has never been more difficult than under this Government. People are paying hand over fist for sky-high energy bills, housing costs, food, insurance - everything - while big, super-rich companies make record profits and the Government stands idly by, allowing rip-offs to happen. People who work very hard to provide for their families are being squeezed every single day.

Having failed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, the Taoiseach is now talking a big game nine days out from an election. He sat at the Cabinet table as the Government chose not to introduce permanent supports for struggling families, which would have made a long-term difference. He was there as the Government chose not to increase the core rate of child benefit or the qualified child payments to the levels needed. Last month, the Government chose to increase the price of petrol and diesel and it has proposed to do so twice more once these elections have passed. Despite the Taoiseach's stated concern and instead of making every effort to reduce costs for households, he proposes to increase them. He will forgive many for not believing his big talk on the eve of an election.

Tá géarchéim an chostais maireachtála fós ag cur brú ollmhór ar theaghlaigh. Tá an Taoiseach ag caint ar chluiche mór naoi lá amuigh ón toghchán. Ní mór anois aige ach fáil réidh leis na hardaithe peitril agus díosail atá pleanáilte.

If the Taoiseach is genuinely concerned about struggling families, why would he make them struggle more? He must know that raising the cost of petrol and diesel again and again will hurt these families, so he should not do it. If he is serious about tackling the cost of living, he should start by scrapping plans to hike the price of petrol and diesel in August and October.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the important issues highlighted by the Barnardos survey published this morning. I am very grateful to Barnardos for the work it does and the survey it produced. I thank its dedicated staff and volunteers. Objectively, Ireland is making progress when it comes to child poverty. The consistent poverty rate for children is now lower than it has been at any other time since measurements began in 2004. Similarly, the at-risk-of-poverty rate for children is now lower than at any other time since we started measuring it in 2004. The data also shows the positive impact on child poverty rates of the cost-of-living measures taken by the previous Government. The Barnardos report today has 12 indicators. Of those 12 on page 2 of its statement issued this morning, eight have shown significant progress over the course of the past year. That is why I said this week at the national economic dialogue that cost-of-living supports must also be a focus of the next budget.

It is also why we held the first child poverty and well-being summit in Dublin Castle last week. It had more than 300 participants, including Barnardos, to ask what next do we do in Ireland.

We do not want any child in Ireland to be hungry. We do not want any family in Ireland to struggle. How do we work together on both universal supports and more targeted measures? I must say to the Deputy that by any fair analysis, we have taken a number of measures that have already made a positive difference to families, whether that is reducing the cost of childcare, increasing parents' leave and benefit, providing free schoolbooks to all children in primary school or providing an expansion of the hot school meals programme and making sure we have hot school meals for all primary school children in 2025. Moreover, we have provided access to free GP care and the Government took a really important initiative last week called Equal Start. The Children's Rights Alliance called this initiative one of the most important measures you could take if you were serious about tackling child poverty. This is a new Government-funded model to ensure there are extra supports for disadvantaged children in early learning and childcare. There is of course much more that we want to do, both on the universal side and the targeted side.

The Deputy specifically mentioned the fuel issue. Here is where I think there are a number of inconsistencies in her approach. First, she travels the globe, most recently to Massachusetts, talking to the next generation about the importance of climate change. Yet, she comes in here and - I think many of the Opposition would agree with me on this - refuses to take every single opportunity she has to show leadership on climate. She opposes every single measure put forward, while telling young people across the globe that she wants to address the climate emergency. Perhaps more hypocritical is her position on petrol and diesel. She is misleading people again. To the men and women at home, driving to and from work, collecting children from school later today, I say that while the Government keeps future rises under review, including the August one, the Sinn Féin alternative budget proposed restoring all of the carbon tax by April. Stop trying to cod people. The people are not thick. They can see through this single gear Sinn Féin has, which is to sow outrage, shout and roar, go rah rah rah and stick a video up on Twitter. When push came to shove, at decision point, and Sinn Féin had to present its alternative budget to this House, it proposed to extend the reduced rate of excise duty for petrol and diesel to April, not August.

The report makes absolutely clear that half of households, both parents and children, struggle, go without and worry.

Yes, and let us talk about it.

That is the upshot of the Barnardos report. It is an echo of Social Justice Ireland, which equally recorded those stresses and strains. Insulting me does not take from that reality. I have put to the Taoiseach that he has made and stated his intention that he wishes to tackle the cost of living. He has made quite a production around this. That is good and he should do that. I am saying that hiking diesel and petrol prices in August and then again in October will not achieve that aim. On the contrary it will make a difficult situation far more difficult, particularly for families that live in rural and isolated communities, and for other families who must rely on their car for all sorts of reasons. Why would he do this? I am asking him to put his money where his mouth is. If he believes he will tackle the cost of living, he should start by scrapping the plan and being explicit that there will be no hike in diesel and petrol costs in August or October. It is that simple.

The Deputy must not be a sensitive soul. When I talk about holding her to account for what she said, it is not insulting. I would never insult her. I have great respect for her as a person, but this is what she said about the budget. That is what she said and I can only judge her on the figures she produces and so can the Irish people. I want to motorists to know that, as a Government, we keep this under review and have great form in this regard. Reversals on reductions that were due to come into place as far back as August 2022 have been rolled over.

So, he is not doing it.

Please. The Taoiseach, without interruption.

We are keeping it under review and will make those decisions and continue to keep it under review. However, I am glad the Deputy has also referenced the issue of child poverty today. Child poverty is a really important issue, and we need to do more, but let us look at our record versus Sinn Féin's. In the last budget we extended child benefit, benefiting 60,000 more children. Sinn Féin did not wish to benefit one extra.

Not true.

We put €45 million more into hot school meals, they put a paltry €15 million in. We increased the domiciliary care allowance. Sinn Féin did not think those parents deserved any more.

We did.

We provided a lump sum payment for families on qualified child payment. Sinn Féin did not.

I can feel another fact check coming on.

We increased the income threshold for working families, and Sinn Féin did not do that either. In Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin is now leading the government longer than I am leading this one, it does not yet have a strategy to tackle child poverty. The Deputy can read what the Northern Ireland Audit Office has said.

Thank you, Taoiseach, time is up.

When is the Sinn Féin First Minister going to deliver a child poverty strategy in Northern Ireland?

On behalf of the Labour Party, I call Deputy Ó Ríordáin.

You are all very quiet over there.

I was privileged on Monday to visit the SAOL Hub-----

Another fact check coming.

Can we have a little order please?

More lies.

I want to talk about disabilities-----

More lies.

-----if people would give me the opportunity.

On Monday, with our local Labour representative Patrick Dempsey, I was privileged to visit the SAOL Hub in Ballyfermot Community Civic Centre run by Stewarts Care. We heard first-hand the challenges facing young adults with disabilities - the under-resourcing and lack of opportunities. As the Taoiseach knows, disabled people are at a much higher risk of poverty and social exclusion. They are more likely to be out of work and to leave education early. In 2015, I was proud to be involved in the creation of the comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities. Yet almost ten years on, Ireland still has the highest disability employment gap in the EU at almost twice the European average. There are many reasons for this, but a failure to support people to overcome barriers is fundamental to Ireland's poor outcomes. There is still no recognition of the cost of a disability and if a person takes up work, he or she may lose their medical card. However, many parents cannot even think about future employment when they are swamped with the difficulties of accessing services and supports for their children.

When the Deputy became Taoiseach, he said disability would be one of his priorities and we welcomed that. He knows this is a burning issue for many families. There are huge delays in assessment of needs for children with almost 15,000 on waiting lists. There is a lack of supports for young adults when they leave the education system. There is huge disquiet about the resourcing of additional complex needs in schools, and the chronic failure to ensure access to occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychologists and so on. A few weeks ago, we had a national discussion about the rights of disabled people, yet it has fallen off the political radar again. It is the last week of May and no allocations have been released yet for special needs assistants. It shows enormous disrespect for educational staff. Principals of special schools have highlighted the need for therapists to be in their schools, rather than allocated to the HSE's children's disability network teams. This mistake, introduced six years ago, is now being reversed but there are huge barriers to recruitment because they were not being offered permanent contracts. The Minister now has to go to the Department of public expenditure and reform to get sanction for what should have been obvious in the first place. There was no consultation with disability organisations about the removal of complex needs criteria from the allocation of special educational teachers. Yesterday, the Minister had to admit that an additional 1,000 teacher hours would have to be allocated. Schools are being forced to go to the NCSE to fill the gap when they do not have alternative supports. Inclusion Ireland has said that all policies should be rights proofed and child centred and this needs to be revisited.

These are the questions I have for the Taoiseach almost two months into his term. The Ceann Comhairle might allow some latitude as I was interrupted at the beginning. What has been done to address the cost of disability, and will there be a new comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities? Will the Taoiseach consult disability organisations and reverse the removal of complex needs hours from schools? Will he guarantee every child will have a place in September? When will allocations for SNAs be made? It is getting later and later every year.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I acknowledge the work of SAOL, and people are happy to engage with that organisation. There are a couple of issues, and I would like to address each of them. On comprehensive employment and the need to do more for people with disability to access the workforce, I acknowledge that it was a former colleague of the Deputy's, Fergus Finlay, and others who set up the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities. It is quite inspiring what they have done, because it is not just access to education but crucially access to employment after. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that from September, that model or a similar one, will be rolled out to approximately one dozen more higher education complexes and institutions across the country. I think that link between education and employment opportunities is important, and we can learn much from the Trinity centre. There is also a funding allocation for that.

I am not happy with where we are on assessment of needs and neither are the Ministers of State, Deputies Rabbitte and Naughton. That is why we announced an additional €12 million last week to try to address the backlog in families waiting for an assessment of need. Many families are waiting far too long. I again acknowledge the Deputy's constructive role in the Labour Party in this area. I am pleased that, in the short term, private capacity will be used to try to help address some of that backlog. I think that may have arisen from a motion tabled by the Deputy.

A recruitment campaign is now under way for the children's disability network teams. From memory, about 161 people have been offered jobs in those teams as result of that recruitment campaign, and phase 2 of the campaign is due to commence later this year.

In respect of the special education teaching hours, the Deputy is right. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, has reminded me that, as a result of a review, about 1,000 additional hours will be announced in the coming days. There are learnings regarding this model and the lack of consultation and engagement, which the Department should reflect on. I am pleased the review is showing that some of the concerns that had been highlighted are now being addressed. The Minister of State is working intensively with the Minister for Education to ensure every child with a disability will have access to an appropriate school place this September. We are also working to put on a permanent basis the 39 therapy posts the National Council for Special Education now has sanction for.

As for a new comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities, that will be considered as part of the new national disability strategy. There is due to be a very significant engagement with stakeholders on that later this week, I think on Friday, and I have now decided to personally chair a Cabinet committee on disability. It has met twice in my seven weeks in office and will continue to meet monthly, to try to break down silos and bring people together.

I could quote statistics for extra investment and so on but that would kind of miss the point. I accept there are still very many challenges in the delivery of services here and I hope some of these measures will provide some hope to people and some positive momentum.

The Taoiseach has accepted some of the Government's failures but I would not put them at the feet of just the Department. The Minister stood here and said 33% of schools would have a disadvantage in their allocation of hours under the model that was suggested and there was no adequate consultation but the Taoiseach is working to correct that.

On the rates of people with disabilities in employment, a person with a disability is more likely to be at risk of poverty, be socially excluded or fall into addiction. Our rate of people with disabilities in the employment force is 32%. The European average is 51%, so it should be a Government priority to reinitiate the comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities. We in the Labour Party understand absolutely the power and dignity of being in work and how important that is. If the rate is 32% here and 51% in most European countries, we obviously have a huge amount of work to do, and the danger is more people with disabilities will fall out of mainstream society and not feel as empowered or as loved and cherished as they should feel.

There is sometimes a difference in the classification of disability across the EU but that does not take from the broader point the Deputy made about our participation rates of people with a disability in the workforce not being where they need to be. At a time of full employment, we need to address areas of underemployment where people with a disability would like to access the workforce. Employers need people in the workforce and the Deputy's suggestions are sensible.

I do think the approach we are taking, though, in the linkage between the educational opportunity and the employment opportunity is important. The career guidance strategy review that I published in my previous role with the Minister for Education, which talks about putting career guidance supports into special educational schools, has to be a priority and will be a personal priority of mine for the next budget.

In terms of education in general and some of the points the Deputy made about access to places, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, intends to increase the number of special educational needs organisers, SENOs, the people organising services on the ground and organising education, from 73 to 120, which is a very important support for parents and teachers. We are happy to continue to constructively engage with any suggestions in this area.

I raise the issue of community cancer support centres. A diagnosis of cancer can bring with it a myriad of changes. Life can suddenly become a roller-coaster of medical appointments and hospital stays, being unable to work, financial worries, a loss of independence, unintended isolation and a tsunami of fear and uncertainty. These all-consuming changes come at a time when a person is already feeling vulnerable, worried and sometimes even angry. Their world and that of their families and loved ones become plagued with questions and concerns. In the midst of these changes, patients and those close to them can become overwhelmed. Their minds are flooded with worries and fears that they often feel unable to discuss with one another. Questions that need answers go unspoken and worries stay silent for fear of magnifying this worry in others. Individually and collectively, they are crying out for support. They simply want someone who will listen and hear their fears, someone who can guide them along the unfamiliar path on which they find themselves and walk with them when times are tough or overwhelming. Medical professionals cannot adequately offer this support. Demands on their time do not allow them to do so.

For more than 30 years, community cancer support centres have been providing this invaluable and vital service in many locations across the country. These centres are partnered with and recognised by the Irish Cancer Society for the instrumental role they play in the lives of patients, their carers and their families. The national cancer strategy identifies community cancer support centres as a key service for cancer patients. They provide psychological, emotional, educational and practical support in a warm and welcoming environment to people with cancer and those who care for them. Their services are confidential, professional and caring and are provided free of charge. They offer a supportive role during and after a journey with cancer. They spend quality and precious time with all those in a family who have been impacted by their loved one's cancer diagnosis. It would be impossible to estimate the magnitude of the role they play, yet despite this, community cancer support centres have operated as registered charities since their inception and rely solely on fundraising. They received no designated funding until this year, when they were awarded €3 million in a one-off fund from the Department of Health to support the 16 centres they operate across the country, including Suir Haven, Thurles, North Tipperary Hospice, Roscrea Outreach Centre and the Circle of Friends cancer support centre in Tipperary town. This funding has allowed them to sustain and increase the incalculable role they play. However, the demand and the proven need for community cancer support centres will not end in 2024. One-off funding cannot sustain the demand for such services.

The community cancer support services have more than proven their worth. Will the Government support their call for annual funding to enable this service to continue its crucial work?

I thank Deputy Lowry for raising this really important matter. As he started speaking, I was reminded of a delegation he brought to see me many years ago, when I was Minister for Health, from the Circle of Friends group in Tipperary town. He will remember that at that time, the late, great Sarah Gleeson came to see me with Jennifer Jones Hickey and others, and I think of Sarah and her family today. She made an incredible contribution and legacy to cancer services and to the Circle of Friends in Tipperary town, and I thank her and others. I remember visiting the Circle of Friends and Sarah being too ill to attend but in her memory, we were all able to work to provide very significant funding, with community and the Government, to deliver that state-of-the-art centre. I was just reminded of those meetings as we are talking here today.

The Deputy is right about the role of community cancer support centres. There is not a Deputy in this House, regardless of party affiliation, who does not know the incredible benefit of them, and I am really pleased the current national cancer strategy, which runs from 2017 to 2026, recognises that important role. There is stuff the State must do, and there is stuff the State does well and stuff it must do better, but alongside that there is that partnership approach with the voluntary centres. More people in Ireland are now living after a cancer diagnosis and, therefore, the supports of our community cancer centres are growing in importance. As the Deputy rightly said, they are voluntary organisations, and many of them are legally charity organisations as well. They deliver a range of services directly to cancer patients, as well as to their families and carers, and this emphasises the importance of, and facilitates, improved quality of life during and after cancer treatment. The services are free of charge and are delivered in a community, non-hospital setting, and the idea a patient is not just a patient but also a person who is able to access services that look at all of their well-being in the community is really important.

The national cancer control programme established in 2022 an alliance of community cancer support centres and is now working closely with these centres on the psycho-oncology model of care and its implementation. I am pleased to say an additional €3 million in funding was allocated to the community cancer support centres in the most recent budget, which will help these voluntary and charity organisations to deliver services directly to cancer patients and their families.

All centres that were full members of the alliance were invited to submit applications for that funding this year. The national cancer control programme advises that letters with funding amounts for 2024 have now been issued to all of the centres and grant agreements are currently being signed off. I believe those grants are due to start to be paid this week and that grant payments for all of those who have received funding through the alliance centres will be completed in early June.

As we move towards budget 2025, I want to see how we can put that funding on a sustainable footing.

The most important element of this is that the €3 million was very welcome and it sustains those organisations throughout this year. Their difficulty is that they cannot plan ahead and they need an annual budget. I ask the Government to ensure that an additional €3 million or whatever the figure is included in the budget at the end of this year for next year, that is, the year 2025.

An estimated 42,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in Ireland every year and the good news is that more people in Ireland are surviving cancer than ever before. Investment and support under the two national cancer strategies have helped significantly in improving outcomes.

We provided €6 million in our budget.

You did.

It was permanent, as well.

However, this has declined somewhat due to what has been a reduced investment and funding priority in the 2017 to 2026 strategy the Taoiseach just referred to, so I ask the Taoiseach to address that and ensure adequate and proper funding is put in place to keep the organisations doing the tremendous work they do.

I thank the Deputy and as he will appreciate, the €3 million was the first time we provided this model of funding to the alliance. I have met many of these organisations and I know many of them in my own county. I have met a number of these organisations around the country and the funding was welcomed as an important step. I accept it is a first step. I accept the organisations want to have an ability to be able to plan beyond year to year or beyond having to apply on a recurring basis. Let us now see how we can make that happen in terms of the delivery of the health budget for 2025. The level of investment is very small compared to the level of community investment and I do not think it is too much of an ask from the communities that raise so much that the Government would provide a greater level of certainty of funding for the years ahead. I am happy to work with Deputy Lowry and any like-minded Deputy on this in advance of budget 2025.

I wish to raise road safety schemes in County Kerry. Over a long period, Councillor Jackie Healy-Rae in the Castleisland electoral area has raised this very important issue. In 2024, Kerry County Council and our excellent director of roads and transportation, Frank Hartnett, have only received €550,000 to progress road safety schemes in the entire county. This is an increase of just €7,000 from 2023. In one municipal district in Kerry that stretches from Scartaglin back to the west of Dingle, the Castleisland - Corca Dhuibhne MD, will only be able to progress one safety scheme this year due to this allocation. Kerry County Council requires €30,000, which is a small sum of money, to progress a safety scheme at Lisheen cross in Gneevgullia where there is an extensive accident history. Recently, there was another major accident at this junction involving five people and it is only a matter of time before someone is killed at that location. That project is shovel-ready but is starved of funding.

A sum of €60,000 is required to progress a safety scheme in Castleisland town at the junction of Church Street and Main Street. An extremely busy mart is located down this road and it is heavily trafficked. Another scheme requiring funding for traffic calming measures and a pedestrian crossing at an extremely busy crèche facility in Firies along with further traffic measures in Firies village where there is a big residential development. A recent traffic survey found cars going in excess of the speed limit there.

The junction at the very busy Gortatlea Mart, which provides a great service on the N21, requires a right-turning ghost island to facilitate traffic turning right. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, in its infinite wisdom burned off the road markings a number of years ago. Another right-turning ghost island is required further up at the Glanshearoon viewing area on the N21. There have been multiple fatalities along that road.

The point I am trying to make is the Taoiseach and his Government - and rightly so - are concerned about traffic safety on our roads. The Government continually looks at different ways, and I do not disagree with the Government looking at it. However the Government is looking at certain issues, such as driver behaviour and saying speed limits should be reduced from 100 km/h to 80 km/h, 80 km/h to 60 km/h and 60 km/h to 40 km/h. I do not agree with that. I would never vote for that and I will tell the Taoiseach why. I have no monopoly of being right in this House and I am not waving my hand at the Taoiseach and saying he is wrong. The Taoiseach's heart is in the right place but I say that what I would call simplistic political reactionary actions such as that are not what is required. What is required is to fund us, for instance in County Kerry and every other county in the country. Every other Deputy in this House has the same issues. They could stand up and name crosses, junctions and locations. Why is the Government not seeing to those accident locations where people are being injured and putting themselves in danger?

I thank the Deputy.

I ask the Government to look at the bigger picture, the deer roaming onto our roads and the fact local authorities are not cutting hedges and keeping trees back to gives us sight distance on our road. I am asking the Government to look at the bigger picture and when it comes to road safety and the RSA-----

I thank the Deputy. We are way over time now please.

-----to not just be looking at the one thing all of the time - penalty points and driver behaviour on the roads. Look at our responsibilities. It is all of our faults that we are not spending money at those locations. I am not blaming the Taoiseach; I am blaming all of us.

Please Deputy, we are way over time.

We should be doing more to help people on the ground.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. At the outset, as we approach another bank holiday weekend, I am sure everyone in this House will join in calling for people to be very conscious of driver behaviour on the roads this weekend. I will get to the Deputy's direct point in a moment.

Let me actually get to it now because I agree with the Deputy to a point. I definitely agree that road safety is not down to any one thing. If we are extraordinarily serious about road safety and reversing the worrying trend we have seen in deaths and injuries on Irish roads this year, we need to look at every lever at our disposal and everything we can possibly do. I will come back to that in a moment.

What we also know, and I am sure the Deputy will not disagree on this, is that driver behaviour - what the RSA calls "killer behaviours" - accounts for a very significant majority of deaths and accidents on Irish roads. We need to be very conscious of that. Speed, drink driving and drug driving kills. There is the importance of wearing a seat belt. The basic things we have been trying to ingrain in Irish culture and psyche for many years are as important, if not more important, than ever. Not using a mobile phone while driving is another major one. I have met a lot of people on this issue over the last number of weeks, including the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, An Garda Síochána, the Road Safety Authority, local authorities and TII. We need to continue at every opportunity to get that message out about driver behaviours and the impact they have on road safety. I know the Deputy gets that.

I will clarify the Government's position on speed limits. In legislation the Government passed, local authorities are empowered with regard to final decisions on speed limits because I believe in local government and that local councillors will always have good and important knowledge that we perhaps would not have here in the Dáil. Speed limits and speed limit levels are important but allowing that understanding that the local authority would be pre-eminent is also quite important.

The Deputy is also right that the quality of roads, investment in roads, road repairs, road safety and working with the local guys is also very important. It is a sad state of fact that when we see accidents happen on roads we often see them happen on the same stretch of road or bend in the road - what used to be known as the accident blackspots back in the day. That is why we want to continue to invest more in safety schemes as well.

I have a list of a number of allocations the Government has made to Kerry County Council, including in 2024. Allocations of €30.14 million were received by Kerry County Council for works to be conducted under various grant types. Under safety schemes specifically, the Government has provided funding for five safety schemes. The Deputy may have referenced some of them already. They are Whitebridge, Two Mile school, Abbeydorney village, Castlegregory village, Tailor's Row and Ardfert village. We have also provided capital funding of €9.7 million, which has been allocated to the protection and renewal of the national road network in Kerry.

With regard to the specific issues and stretches of road the Deputy has raised, if he provides those details to me in the context of road safety I will also ask that the Department of Transport and TII look at them and work with Kerry County Council on these matters.

If the Government is serious about saving lives on our roads, the local authorities will need a massive increase in funding for road safety schemes. The RSA recently spent €800,000 on one single television advert for its 30 km/h town campaign which in my personal opinion was a glorified tourism advert for the town of Clonakilty. Yet Kerry County Council only received, again, €550,000 for the entire county to progress road safety schemes in 2024, schemes that will have an impact on our roads.

Money is being squandered on TV adverts that have little or no effect. It would be far better spent by the Frank Hartnetts of Ireland in our county councils to effect real changes on our roads.

I want to pay tribute to the great soldiers and people on the ground working for Kerry County Council, and for local authorities throughout the country. They are the people who are out in bad weather trying to keep roads clear, filling potholes, doing tarring and skirting, laying surface dressing and doing maintenance work on all of our behalf. I want to compliment every one of those people here today and acknowledge their work in wet and inclement weather.

I am trying to be agreeable on this because the Deputy raises valid and important points about road safety and we want to build a political and societal consensus around road safety which is a major issue. I have a point of difference with the Deputy to TV adverts. There is behavioural science that shows the importance of those impactful ads. Everybody in this House and anybody watching this debate at home can think of some of the impactful ads that have been broadcast over the years and the impact they have had in generating conversations around kitchen tables, in the workplace, at the water cooler and all of that. That is good.

On roads, I would respectfully say that the €550,000 refers to five specific roads projects under the title of road safety schemes. The totality of funding we provide to Kerry for regional and local road networks, which has a contribution to road safety, is €30.14 million for this year. We have also provided €1 million in current funding to Kerry County Council to fund regular maintenance operations, including winter maintenance and route lighting. The past number of months have been horrific in terms of rain. That has had a real impact on roads. I join the Deputy in paying tribute to all local authority staff for the work they have done and I hope Government in the coming days is in a position to recognise the impact that the weather has had on roads and support our local authorities in a practical sense in that way.