I wish to raise the many problems in the National Ambulance Service. Staff are doing their best but there are problems beyond their control. I will outline some of those problems. There are not enough staff or ambulances. We have approximately 1,500 staff. Scotland, which has a similar population, has more than double that number. We have 675 operational ambulances in the service. Scotland has more than double that number. There is a problem with so-called dynamic deployment, and I really want to push the Taoiseach…

The Taoiseach is correct about the investment, but we will not get the benefit of it because of the way the system is configured. The Taoiseach used the word "evidence". I will tell him what the evidence is. A county has no cover because the ambulance that is on call has to go to an emergency two or three counties away. That cannot be allowed to continue. That is the way Laois has been left on two nights each week. If a person is injured or is in a life-threatening situation only a mile or a half mile from the hosp…

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate. It has been 27 years since the Good Friday Agreement was endorsed, north and south, and over 100 years since partition. A lot of us at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, if we are being honest, were reluctant supporters of it. I will read out one line in it. "The Government [meaning the British Government] of Ireland Act 1920 is repealed; and this Act shall have effect notwithstanding any other previous enactment." That line in an annexe to the docume…

Minister-----

Could we stop any heckling, please?

Micheál Martin says the time is not right. The Deputy will get an opportunity, I will use my opportunity. Micheál Martin says the time is not now. Full reconciliation has to a precondition but that will mean it will never happen. Yes, we need to advance reconciliation and we should promote it. Of course we should. I have met people from the unionist community in the past, including some loyalists. We should reach out and meet people who were traditionally our opponents. Reconciliation is important and we must conti…

There is a commitment in the programme for Government to prioritise new wind farm guidelines. Wind is important and it is important we are able to utilise it as part of the solution to moving to cleaner energy. Last week I got a reply to a parliamentary question on it. The reply from the Minister stated that the 2006 guidelines remain in force and that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently undertaking a focus review of the 2006 wind energy guidelines and engaging on all aspects of it…

-----no proper set-back distances from homes and no protection from shadow flicker and noise. Residents feel powerless and very frustrated by this-----

-----and it is disgraceful. I will conclude on this. Every one of the past four Governments promised to do this. Who is putting the brakes on it? I have a Bill before the House, if the Tánaiste wants to support that-----

-----or if he wants to bring in his own guidelines, that is fine. When will we finally have up-to-date wind guidelines that are fit for purpose with these huge, almost 600 ft. turbines?

It would be great if it was before Christmas.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important motion. The issue of defective concrete was a huge problem in Leinster but what we are seeing in Donegal and down along the north west and western seaboard is catastrophic in both its scale and the effect it is having on families. The motion is very reasonable. It calls on the Government to "cease all partial remediation", to "reinstate the original determinations of [qualified] engineers", to "legislate to guarantee retrospective support", and to "establish…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I note that the two Ministers are here. Sometimes at debates here the senior Minister or the Minister of State do not attend but for most of this debate there were three Ministers present, comprising the Minister and two Ministers of State. While we might disagree on a lot of issues, it shows there is a seriousness about the changes that need to be made in this sector. The tillage sector needs an uplift. There was a saying “One more cow, one more sow, one …

It would be hard to oppose the Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Bill. It is increasing the finance available, which is needed. The key issue is that it is at low interest rates. I do not know if a portion of it is coming from the European Investment Bank, the private markets or a mixture of both. The Minister of State might outline that in his reply. We are in the middle of a housing crisis like we have never seen before. We really need to try to deal with it. The cost and speed of delivery are key issues, along …

One in 12 people has a lifelong disability, which is roughly 8% of the population. How we treat these people presents a challenge for society. Two out of five people with a disability are at risk of poverty. One in five lives in absolute and consistent poverty. That is a shocking figure in itself. It is well documented that the cost of living is higher for people with disabilities. The costs have been well outlined in terms of transport, medical costs, the cost of heating and everything else. We must look at this i…

A budget is about choices. The Government could have helped the squeezed middle and the working poor, but what did it do? In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, rents will go up from March, the local property tax has just gone up, and electricity prices are going up at the same time as groceries and other items are going up in price. Some of these increases could have been addressed but what did the Government do, even though it knows there is more economic hardship on middle-income householders and workers in p…

In the area of health, which I know is expensive, let us get it right in terms of primary care. Access to primary care is a priority. A pressing issue is the need for changes to the income threshold for medical cards. That stands at a scandalous €184 for a single person. For a couple with two children - let us think about this - it is €342. When they go over that, they lose their medical card. These people have no basic health cover and cannot afford private health insurance. That should have been rectified. A port…

The month of October is associated with Halloween and children play trick or treat at Hallowe'en. However, the Government's budget is all trick and no treats. That is what we get from the Government. There was an election in the previous year and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael literally went out and bought votes. There was money for everything, there were one-offs and there was helicopter money nearly falling out of the sky. There were grants for everything, grants for millionaires and grants for people who did not need…

After 78 years of occupation, with Palestinians driven off their land, hounded and subjected to exile, murder, torture and apartheid - the list goes on - in the past 24 months, we have seen levels of depravity never witnessed by my generation. There have been aerial bombardments, slaughter on a scale that words cannot describe, starvation and neighbourhoods bombed out of existence and flattened by the war criminals of Israel. An unknown number of people are buried beneath the rubble. In the West Bank, 700,000 illeg…

In 2013, the Taoiseach rounded on Fine Gael in this House over the proposal to change the triple lock. He said that it would damage neutrality and "would contribute nothing to international peace". When the Nice referendum was rejected in 2001 and Lisbon in 2008, his Government - Fianna Fáil was in power - gave a guarantee to the electorate in the form of a solemn national declaration on neutrality and retaining the triple lock in order to get both referendums through. One line in the declaration says, "In line wit…