I thank the Minister for his clarification on the 68 who are continuing to serve despite-----

Some of them are-----

-----discharged at this point.

They are not all in service. Is there an indication of how many people have been completely discharged and removed from the military as a result of different convictions, and what kinds of convictions they were removed for? Was it gender based? What kinds of thresholds were there? Were they discharged for particular offences or is there any information on the types of sentences? The Minister may not have it to hand, but perhaps he might give an indication afterwards of the kinds of thresholds for people to eventual…

Currently, people are required to retire from the Defence Forces by their 60th birthday, which is causing a great loss of knowledge and experience. What measures are being taken to enable the Defence Forces to retain some of these highly skilled, trained and experienced personnel?

I thank the Tánaiste. I welcome the move to 60 years of age for everybody who did not have that option. I understand it was proposed to go further and to bring forward legislation to give people the opportunity to remain with the Defence Forces up to the age of 62. What plans are there for advancing that at this stage? There is only a short time remaining before the summer recess so is it envisaged the legislation for that will come forward over the next week or two? What kind of timeframe would be available or is …

First, I acknowledge the huge range of measures that have been taken to support retention, the likes of the working time directive; the various monetary benefits; the buildings and so many more. As the Tánaiste said, one could keep talking. There are a huge range of measures and I want to acknowledge that. I will focus in on the age-related one. In particular, the decision has been made to extend the age to 62. People who are watching their birthday know the clock is set for them so if there is an indication of a t…

Locals have been raising with me concerns about pollution in the River Sullane downstream from the town of Macroom. There are two particular issues of concern to locals, namely the pollution itself and what appears to be the authorities’ lack of interest in pursuing the polluter. For some time, locals have been raising concerns with different authorities about foul discharges into the Sullane, smells, visible pollution, things floating in the water, cloudy water and so on. This does not just happen when there is fl…

Táim ag tarraingt aníos an cheist seo faoi thruailliú san Súlán i Maigh Chromtha. Tá go leor de mhuintir na háite tar éis an cheist seo a tharraingt aníos linn. Faigheann siad an boladh agus feiceann siad an truailliú san abhainn agus tá siad buartha nach bhfuil Uisce Éireann nó an EPA ag dul i ngleic leis an bhfadhb. Feicimid go bhfuil a ghnó idir lámha acu ach, idir an dá linn, tá truailliú leanúnach ann agus tá sé ann le roinnt mhaith blianta. Tá an cheist seo tarraingthe aníos arís is arís eile ag muintir na há…

Will the Minister comment on figures for unpaid court-imposed fines and the efforts to collect those fines? I understand from different people that there are people who wish they would go away or make efforts to delay them and do not pay them in the possibility that they would be written off. I wish to get an understanding from the Minister on the numbers and the efforts to collect those funds.

I thank the Minister of State. This issue has been raised with me by a number of people, including representatives of disability groups and mothers with buggies who find, for example, a car parked, blocking the path or blocking a disabled parking space. This is pretty much sticking the finger up to the public. People will take whatever space they want. Even if a ticket is issued, the feeling is that the same person will stick it up to the judicial system afterwards and refuse to pay. I am shocked that there is more…

The idea of somebody going to prison is a last option. We would want to make every effort to ensure that does not arise. If there are penalty fines, efforts should be made to collect those funds and impose the penalty. Going back and forth in the courts must take up a lot of time and effort for the Courts Service, clogging up other cases it wants to deal with. Is there any indication of how often they go around and the amount of time lost to that? Are fines written off after some time? Are those trying to stave it …

What about write-offs?

I would like to find out from the Minister the number of gardaí available to police Cork city and county, how this number compares to this time last year and whether she feels this figure is adequate or if efforts are under way to ensure there are sufficient gardaí to police Cork city and county.

When the Minister opened by stating her view that she would like to see more gardaí, I felt it was going to be a case of, "Oh God, the numbers are going down", and she then confirmed that. The number of gardaí in the city has gone down from 705 to 670 and the county divisions have lost gardaí as well. We see this impact on the ground and it is a great source of concern for many people. The new policing model is in place in Cork county at this stage, which has resulted in a very large area being policed right across…

Given that the numbers of gardaí in Cork have decreased, what efforts will be made to ensure there will be an increase in the numbers there to fill these vacant posts and police the area adequately? We have seen that there are recruitment campaigns and that trainee gardaí are going through the process. Yet, in some of those campaigns, we have seen that the Commissioner has directed people to the north east, Dublin and various other locations where it was felt there was greater need. This left posts unfilled in plac…

I understand the question is grouped with a number of questions from Deputy Brendan Smith who would have raised questions with the Minister about the Ballyhaise and Castletara areas being included in the CLÁR area. The Deputy is held up with the Good Friday committee meeting at this stage but I ask that the Minister might be able to address those points. In particular, I want to raise with the Minister the possibility of changing the application process for the CLÁR measure 1 applications as residents in larger cou…

The CLÁR scheme, without doubt, has been a successful scheme. It is giving real meaningful assistance to so many community groups. There are difficulties with the application process. As it is 15 applications per county, irrespective of how many CLÁR communities one's country covers, it means that the larger counties feel disadvantaged in it. If one takes a snapshot of last year's allocations, in County Cork, 11 schemes were approved with €456,000, even though it does not cover all of the Cork county. A similar CLÁ…

Capping the application numbers at 15 per county irrespective of the size of the CLÁR area in the county is not equitable right across the country. There are large counties. I gave the example of County Cork. County Mayo, for example, which would have a very large CLÁR area, with four applications approved, got €177,000 in contrast to its neighbours, counties Leitrim, Roscommon and Sligo, where 22 communities were approved, which got €800,000 in a similar geographical area of CLÁR. There is an imbalance in the way …

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. Bogaimid ar aghaidh. I understand that to wrap up, Deputy Tully is sharing with Deputy Patricia Ryan.