I have a query in respect of this issue. The Government's plans are having success. However, they are, unfortunately, too slow. They were quite successful in dealing with the population as it was four, five or ten years ago but in the present climate, we find that counties adjacent to Dublin city and county are having serious problems with a lack of emergency housing. We in County Kildare have run out of possibilities. We are trying. I am asking the Taoiseach to initiate an emergency programme of modern modular hou…

It is sad that we find ourselves at this juncture again, particularly because there have been a number of tragedies in the health service over recent years. There was the cervical screening campaign. There were issues where results were misread or improperly read. There were a number of other peculiar procedures that took place in this country, where women were subjected to some very crude procedures. Thankfully, they no longer happen, but they did happen at that time. This situation is particularly tragic because …

Today I have to defer from my usual question, but I will be back to it again soon, in favour of the issue that arose in my constituency in the last week whereby at the State-owned Castletown House, access was intended to be denied by an adjoining new landowner, resulting in the prevention of access to the State-owned house and 200 acres or thereabouts. It was deemed that the State could not enter, maintain, allow the public, invite the public or continue to spend the moneys that have been spent heretofore, on an an…

One speaker, please. Everybody has their turn.

The next slot is the Social Democrats. I am sure the Minister will not interrupt.

Sinn Féin is next with Deputies Ó Broin, Gould, O'Rourke, Cronin and Ó Murchú. There are a couple of spare minutes in that slot.

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Jennifer Whitmore - To discuss ongoing school bus cancellations in Wicklow. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin - To discuss the ongoing lack of access to Clongriffin DART station from Baldoyle. Deputy Pat Buckley - To discuss the lack of sufficient bus services from Youghal to Midleton train station in County Cork. Deputy Réada Cronin - To discuss the public acq…

I thank the Deputy. The next slot is the Rural Independent Group. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue is the last man standing. He has eight minutes.

That is what is written here. Deputies Thomas Pringle, Catherine Connolly and Joan Collins are in the next slots.

Will the Minister of State indicate the extent, if any, to which there is ongoing intensive research into alternative and value-added uses for wool, given that it has almost come to a standstill on the market? Has this been investigated to the extent that it should be? To what degree have alternative uses been researched? What were the results, if any, of that research? What is likely to happen in the future?

This question seeks to ensure that the same rules apply to all in respect of agri-food production. In respect of the importation of agri-food products, it seeks to ensure that they come from countries with similar restrictions and requirements in order to compete with carbon reduction targets.

I thank the Minister for his detailed reply. In any changing situation, Irish producers will look at the global situation within and outside the EU to try to ensure they are being treated the same as others. I refer particularly to countries that might have an advantage accruing to them from the use, misuse or ability to avoid some of the impositions on the agri-food sector here. I ask the Minister to continue to ensure that we are able to trade on a level playing pitch and that the same rules apply to those countr…

Is the Minister satisfied with the rigorousness of the inspection or the ways and means by which comparisons are made between the husbandry, hygiene and other methods used, in some cases, to enhance production but in particular to compete more effectively in the markets to ensure that we and the producers in this country have an equal chance with everybody else? If they are competing in world markets with a product from wherever, it is important this is on an equal footing and they are not disadvantaged by the rule…

Has sufficient cognisance been had of the considerable advantage social media has over national broadcasting in terms of control, product, quality and presentation? Will that be taken into account sufficiently to ensure public broadcasting can exist against that kind of competition? How might we try to achieve a level playing pitch?

At the outset, I acknowledge the Ceann Comhairle's tolerance of me raising again and again numerous issues in the House over the past 12 months, none more so than the intolerable treatment of Irish mothers and their children, and in some cases Irish fathers, who have been subjected to a pseudo-condition or affliction to the effect that they are being deprived of their civil and human rights. In some cases, the extraordinary situation has occurred whereby, even outside this jurisdiction, demands are made of huge amo…

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Michael Moynihan - to discuss the future of the SouthDoc service in Kanturk, County Cork.; Deputy Paul Murphy - to discuss animal welfare in the dairy industry; Deputy Patrick Costello - to discuss the lack of school provision in Dublin 8; Deputy John Lahart - to discuss the development of an oversight authority for the construction industry and the cu…

Deputy Louise O’Reilly is sharing time with Deputies Martin Browne and Ó Murchú.

In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is postponed until the next weekly division time in September.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to present to the House on this issue yet again. It relates to the ongoing difficulty in family law cases concerning a concept that is not recognised or supported but is strongly contested, nationally and internationally, by various proponents and opponents. It concerns cases where mothers, and in some cases fathers, are forcibly separated from their children and allowed only under very special circumstances to speak to them over the telephone. In some cases, they have be…

I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge that the Minister for Justice, and the formerly acting Minister for Justice, have done tremendous work in advancing the cause to which I referred. The position is that in some cases, children are subjected to being screamed at and being told to shut up and sit down. Their mothers, too, are told to shut up and sit down or they might never see their children again. This has happened and is happening under the in camera rule. There is no such concept of parental alienation …