Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Michael Fitzmaurice (II), Roscommon-Galway

I welcome what the Minister has said but this is the reality so far. Unfortunately, I have lived through a review of the habitat's directive. I was invited to go to a meeting. To be honest about it, I would have been better going home to count the cattle, because I wasted a day doing a review of the habitats directive. You were only allowed to speak for a few minutes and after that it was, "Good luck and good night" and nothing ever came of it. I did that a few years ago after being asked to do it.
The sad part of the ECJ needs to be looked at. If I, as a person with knowledge of the matter, were asked to give evidence of the background to something, I would not even be allowed to put in the paperwork towards it when Ireland is being taken on. The Minister talked about all the different places. It is holding jobs up for six, seven or eight years. I understand that this is the first normal winter in Lough Funshinagh and I welcome that. The problem for housing and all the different projects in the country is that we are now at a stage where it is seven or eight years and we are going around in circles. This is aided and abetted by NGOs that the Government is funding. That is the reality of it. Look at the case that is going on at the moment regarding the derogation, aided and abetted by NGOs. We have to decide whether to pull the plug on their funding as well as going to Europe to explain that people have to live and that we have to change this legislation for the betterment of people.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11