The Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan was meant to connect rural communities. However, there is no regional or Local Link service connecting the communities living between the towns of Athlone and Ballinsloe, a stretch of 20 km. In 2021, the Bus Éireann Galway to Dublin regional route, the 20 and X20 routes, which connected towns and villages in the west, were removed because there were private providers on the route: Citylink and Aircoach. However, since April of this year, Aircoach has withdrawn from the rou…

It is good to hear that there is a proposal that has been considered because it is well overdue. I understand the Minister of State is taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan. It is important that this service be put in place as soon as possible. We are already in year three of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan. The challenge I have seen is that when the X20 Bus Éireann route was removed, it left nothing for communities between Ballinasloe and Athlone and between Loughrea an…

I wish to speak about the Minister of Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, who made an announcement over the weekend, and pay tribute to a Fine Gael Minister who has done wonders for rural and local communities all over the country. She made a number of visits to counties Roscommon and Galway in my case, which were the result of investment in our region be it through CLÁR or the towns and villages schemes. Many funding streams from the Department of Rural and Community Development have had an impact. …

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

The Minister has visited Roscommon and Galway multiple times because so many projects have received funding from the Department of Rural and Community Development, CLÁR, the town and village renewal scheme, the community centres fund and project development measures. Innovative policies and measures that have made a difference have been introduced. If people say they want to live and work in rural areas, we want to ensure that there are supports and amenities in place. That is what it is all about. Councillors had …

It is true that we need to examine supports for our businesses; it is absolutely crucial. The Minister for enterprise, Deputy Peter Burke, has introduced the national enterprise portal. I want to highlight what local enterprise offices, LEOs, do across the country. I know the LEOs are expanding their remit to support businesses, particularly in the retail and hospitality sector. We have seen funds come through the LEOs, particularly the energy efficiency grants. We see there are now free applications for businesses…

This amendment comes down to cost for families. We are talking about the challenges for families and in particular for lone parents. We know that lone parents are one of the most vulnerable groups out there. In this budget we can see something that is quite strong, which is the measure around cost-of-living payments, especially those that will happen at the end of October. There are 1.3 million people who will benefit from those cost-of-living payments come 28 October. That bonus is very similar to the Christmas bo…

In my local area, the community employment scheme and the rural social scheme have been extremely important to people in their 60s. The pandemic has had an impact on volunteering or on people getting involved in their communities. There has been a bit more of an increase in isolation and people are not getting back involved in social activities. The community employment scheme and rural social scheme are ways and measures in which people can get involved. On community activities, we talked about community centres w…

There is profound shock at the loss of Councillor John Naughten. He was a wonderful gentleman who was devoted to his family and livelihood as a farmer as well as being there for his local community as a public representative. It is a devastating loss for the Naughten family, friends and for so many in these communities. John helped people for decades and many are grateful for his invaluable public service for the people of Roscommon. As a Fine Gael councillor, John represented the Athlone municipal district on Rosc…

I welcome the Minister of State. A total of €35 million has been given to Portiuncula University Hospital for the provision of a 50-bed unit. The facility, which was opened on 11 September by the Taoiseach, will transform patient care. It is a crucial development. In 2019, I brought a clinical delegation from the hospital to Leinster House to meet with the now Taoiseach and then Minister for Health, Simon Harris, to fight for this. It should have happened ten years ago. A great deal of other investment in the hospi…

Incredible.

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate his personal connection as his wife, Dr. Mary McCaffrey, is an obstetrician. He is very much aware of the hospital and how it dates back to the 1940s. This has been an incredible investment which I want to acknowledge. I refer to the numbers that he has mentioned here whereby there has been a more than 50% increase in budget to €126 million. That is an incredible increase but it just shows that was so overdue. We now have over 1,000 people working in our hospital. We have…

I thank the Minister of State for being with us today. We see measures worth close to €106 billion to support families. In my area, namely Roscommon–Galway, and in the west, there have been challenges owing to the cost of living. It is these that we see addressed in the budget. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, acknowledged in the Dáil that there has been a 19% increase in the cost of living from 2021 until now. Families see this every time they go out to do their shopping. However, the measures put in place are to sup…

I welcome this budget. When we look at the figures, this is the biggest social welfare budget, with investment of €26.5 billion. There is investment of €25.8 billion in health, €11.8 billion in education, €4.5 billion in further education, €8.9 billion in children and €7 billion in housing. How can we do this? How are we in a position to be able to support people at every stage of their lives in this country? It is thanks to the highest employment numbers we have ever had. There are 2.7 million people at work. The …

I thank the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, for being with us today. This is an incredible commitment by the Government which will revolutionise planning and development across the country. It has been in preparation for four years and I again compliment the Minister, the Ministers of State and their team in the Department. It is one national planning statement, three regional assemblies, 31 local authority development plans, and area plans. This is what it breaks down to. I briefly referred to this yesterday, but I will…

This discussion is on the county development plan. The county development plan is looking at a number of these sections, including: sustainability and regeneration; economic development; housing; the creation, improvement and preservation of sustainable places; environment and climate change; and the conservation of natural and built heritage. We talk about balanced regional investment but things like wastewater supply and services must be considered. The NWRA came out with an infrastructure tracker two days ago. I…

I second the motion.

I welcome the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. I have seconded the Fine Gael motion on better planning for local childcare. I thank Senator Currie for her work on this, her continuous efforts to support families and her determination to find solutions. This is of course an innovative approach. The Government has made strides in supporting parents to access lower cost childcare. We have seen the Government investment, as referenced by Senator Currie, in childcare building blocks an…

I will focus on the national planning statements that will be presented to the Minister. We are discussing amendments relating to the provisions in Chapters 3 and 4 of the Bill. My questions specifically concern the regional spatial and economic strategy, RSES. The Northern and Western Regional Assembly, NWRA, released its regional infrastructure tracker just yesterday or the day before. The regional infrastructure tracker for the RSES reveals a challenge. The Northern and Western Regional Assembly covers all the c…